12/01/2017

:00:00. > :00:00.sunshine. It won't do much for those temperatures. 56 degrees at the

:00:00. > :00:28.best. Meanwhile, America's intelligence

:00:29. > :00:41.chief has told Mr Trump he doesn't believe his colleagues

:00:42. > :00:43.leaked the allegations. Also today, hit-and-run drivers,

:00:44. > :00:45.what makes them flee We'll talk to a mother of two

:00:46. > :01:04.who hit a cyclist head-on Literally about 15 seconds before

:01:05. > :01:11.the policeman came, and I saw the carnage, he came, pulled me out, and

:01:12. > :01:17.told me what I had done. How did you respond? I was sickened and scared,

:01:18. > :01:25.full of fear. Hear the full interview at 9:30am. And, we are

:01:26. > :01:28.going to get "Thunder snow" today, but what is it? Carol will tell us

:01:29. > :01:32.just before 9am. Hello, welcome to the programme,

:01:33. > :01:38.we're live until 11 this morning. Not according to the manufacturers,

:01:39. > :01:44.who are hitting back at claims that one of the ingredients,

:01:45. > :01:48.palm oil, is cancer-causing. European food experts reckon it

:01:49. > :01:51.might be bad for us, Do get in touch on all the stories

:01:52. > :01:59.we're talking about this morning. And if you text, you will be charged

:02:00. > :02:03.at the standard network rate. Our top story today, the US Director

:02:04. > :02:06.of National Intelligence has rejected suggestions made

:02:07. > :02:08.by Donald Trump that official agencies leaked claims that Russia

:02:09. > :02:13.had compromising material on him. In a statement, James Clapper said

:02:14. > :02:16.he had called the President-elect to say the information had not come

:02:17. > :02:19.from the security services. Our Washington correspondent

:02:20. > :02:26.Laura Bicker has the story. Donald Trump's not a huge

:02:27. > :02:30.fan of the press corps, but he had a message to send

:02:31. > :02:34.to the media and to US He believes they leaked

:02:35. > :02:38.unsubstantiated allegations that his election team

:02:39. > :02:42.colluded with Russia. It is all fake news, it is phoney

:02:43. > :02:47.stuff, it didn't happen. There are also claims that Russian

:02:48. > :02:49.spies have compiled material to blackmail Mr Trump,

:02:50. > :02:51.including salacious videos Does anyone really

:02:52. > :02:57.believe that story? I'm also very much of a germaphobe,

:02:58. > :03:03.by the way, believe me. The BBC understands the Russian

:03:04. > :03:06.memos on Mr Trump were compiled by a former member of MI6,

:03:07. > :03:11.Christopher Steele. The Director of National

:03:12. > :03:13.Intelligence, James Clapper, He said the leak did not come

:03:14. > :03:19.from within US intelligence, and they have not made any judgement

:03:20. > :03:25.that the information is reliable. As Donald Trump moved the media

:03:26. > :03:29.towards his business dealings, he confirmed he was handing total

:03:30. > :03:31.control of his empire These papers are just some

:03:32. > :03:36.of the many documents that I've signed turning over complete

:03:37. > :03:42.and total control to my sons. The ethics committee has now

:03:43. > :03:47.said his plan does not meet past This performance was a typically

:03:48. > :03:51.eccentric and bombastic piece of political theatre,

:03:52. > :03:54.which his supporters will love. But it did little to calm the swirl

:03:55. > :03:59.of controversies which surround Sarah Rainsford is following

:04:00. > :04:18.the story for us in Moscow. What does Russia say about these sex

:04:19. > :04:23.allegations? Russia has dismissed them out right. Essentially what

:04:24. > :04:28.we've heard from the Kremlin is the spokesman talking about it as "Pulp

:04:29. > :04:32.fiction" and a whole series of politicians saying it is

:04:33. > :04:36.anti-Russian hysteria. They are suggesting Donald Trump is coming

:04:37. > :04:41.under pressure from those who don't want better relations between Moscow

:04:42. > :04:44.and Washington, that this is all invention, fabrication, utter

:04:45. > :04:50.nonsense. That's the line coming from the Kremlin. There has been a

:04:51. > :04:54.lot of focus on this issue, and a lot of focus on the press conference

:04:55. > :04:58.yesterday. People watching for any signals from Donald Trump about

:04:59. > :05:02.whether his position had changed. People were fairly positive as a

:05:03. > :05:06.result of what he said, they saw him speaking positively of Russia and

:05:07. > :05:10.glossing over the negative side of what he said. Which was to say, OK,

:05:11. > :05:15.I want to be friends with Vladimir Putin, if that's not possible, don't

:05:16. > :05:19.expect me to be soft on him. Which is pretty much the message she gave

:05:20. > :05:23.yesterday. Is it possible the Russians could be behind false sex

:05:24. > :05:30.allegations about Mr Trump to potentially destabilising? In theory

:05:31. > :05:34.anything is possible, I guess. There are different theories about what

:05:35. > :05:38.Russia might have been up to, if anything, in terms of its alleged

:05:39. > :05:42.interference in the campaign. One of the series has always been that

:05:43. > :05:47.President Putin and Russia wanted Donald Trump to win and to have an

:05:48. > :05:51.ally in the White House, the other theory has always been that Russia

:05:52. > :05:57.simply wanted to mess things up in America, that it wanted to undermine

:05:58. > :06:01.democracy, that it wanted to undermine the liberal system in

:06:02. > :06:07.America, and just wanted to create doubts about the entire liberal

:06:08. > :06:10.democracy of the United States. If that was the intention, then I

:06:11. > :06:15.suppose you could say that perhaps in some way it has succeeded, at

:06:16. > :06:17.least in throwing the cat amongst the pigeons. Thank you.

:06:18. > :06:20.Annita is in the BBC Newsroom with a summary

:06:21. > :06:23.More than 3,000 American troops, tanks, and armoured vehicles

:06:24. > :06:26.arrive in Poland today, the United States' biggest military

:06:27. > :06:29.presence in the region since the Cold War.

:06:30. > :06:31.It's to support a Nato operation to deter any Russian aggression

:06:32. > :06:33.towards countries in eastern Europe, since the conflict in

:06:34. > :06:43.Ukraine and the Russian annexation of Crimea.

:06:44. > :06:44.The troops' arrival comes just days before the inauguration

:06:45. > :06:47.of Donald Trump, who's signalled he wants to improve

:06:48. > :06:50.The Afghan Taliban has released a video of two professors

:06:51. > :06:52.kidnapped in August, in which they plead for Donald Trump

:06:53. > :06:57.It's the first time the Australian, Timothy Weeks, here on the left,

:06:58. > :07:01.and the American, Kevin King, have been seen since

:07:02. > :07:08.they were abducted as they left work at the American University in Kabul.

:07:09. > :07:10.A number of major retailers have published their sales

:07:11. > :07:12.figures for the Christmas period this morning.

:07:13. > :07:15.M reported a 2.3% rise in clothing sales in the 13 weeks

:07:16. > :07:25.Meanwhile, Tesco says its third quarter sales were up by 1.8%.

:07:26. > :07:28.And John Lewis has reported a 2.7% rise in like-for-like sales over

:07:29. > :07:48.It seems the any negative story so far this year have been a Next

:07:49. > :07:56.Dismore report and what we can confirm from Asda's performance.

:07:57. > :07:59.Overall it seems to be quite robust Christmas for everyone.

:08:00. > :08:01.Temperatures across the UK are expected to fall over

:08:02. > :08:03.the next couple of days, bringing the possibility

:08:04. > :08:06.The Met Office has issued yellow "be aware" warnings

:08:07. > :08:16.In Scotland, snow and winds of 70 mph forecast throughout the day.

:08:17. > :08:18.Plans for the UK's first hydroelectric tidal lagoon will take

:08:19. > :08:22.A report from the former energy minister Charles Hendy concludes

:08:23. > :08:25.that the technology can deliver a secure supply of clean energy,

:08:26. > :08:30.with Swansea Bay the front runner for the ?1.3 billion project.

:08:31. > :08:36.Will this be the UK's latest source of low-carbon energy?

:08:37. > :08:39.The tides in Swansea Bay are some of the highest in the world,

:08:40. > :08:46.so why not build a seawall to capture the outgoing tide?

:08:47. > :08:49.That is the plan from a private firm.

:08:50. > :08:52.They'll use hydroelectric turbines to generate power,

:08:53. > :08:56.as the water flushes through gaps in the seawall.

:08:57. > :09:00.The cost was thought too high for bill payers to bear.

:09:01. > :09:06.A review says it will need subsidy, but it's not as dear as it looks.

:09:07. > :09:09.If you look at the cost spread over the entire lifetime,

:09:10. > :09:12.120 years to the project, it comes out at about 30p

:09:13. > :09:18.And that's where I think we can start a new industry,

:09:19. > :09:21.and we can do it at an affordable cost to consumers.

:09:22. > :09:24.Supporters hope we will see lagoons dotted around the coasts,

:09:25. > :09:28.that will bring down the cost, they say.

:09:29. > :09:30.But anglers fear the impacts of lagoons on wildlife,

:09:31. > :09:33.and the review advises government to agree terms for just one of them,

:09:34. > :09:44.Doctors believe they are closer to understanding why chronic stress

:09:45. > :09:48.increases the risk of heart disease and strokes.

:09:49. > :09:50.Their findings, published in The Lancet, suggest that

:09:51. > :09:53.increased activity in the part of the brain which responds to fear

:09:54. > :09:57.and anger prompts the production of extra white blood cells.

:09:58. > :10:00.This can make the formation of blockages in the

:10:01. > :10:04.The Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, will join the Greek

:10:05. > :10:06.and Turkish foreign ministers in Geneva for talks

:10:07. > :10:13.The former British colony has been divided since Turkish troops invaded

:10:14. > :10:17.more than 40 years ago following a coup by Greek Cypriots.

:10:18. > :10:19.The United Nations says it doesn't expect a deal

:10:20. > :10:28.to be reached this week, only a framework.

:10:29. > :10:32.Mr Johnson said he thought a deal was within reach.

:10:33. > :10:35.There's been an increase in the number of hit-and-run

:10:36. > :10:38.Researchers at Leicester university have interviewed hundreds of people

:10:39. > :10:40.who admit they failed to stop after an accident.

:10:41. > :10:43.Many say they panicked and fled, while others said they didn't think

:10:44. > :10:46.it was serious enough to report, or didn't realise it was

:10:47. > :10:54.We'll be speaking to a woman who has confessed to being a hit and run

:10:55. > :10:58.driver in half an hour. Kurdish activists in Syria say

:10:59. > :11:00.they have recovered the body of a British fighter from territory

:11:01. > :11:02.controlled by Islamic Ryan Lock, who was 20

:11:03. > :11:05.and from Chichester, was killed last month

:11:06. > :11:08.during a battle for the IS The Kurds say they now hope to be

:11:09. > :11:28.able to return his body to the UK. That's the latest BBC News. Later,

:11:29. > :11:32.is Nutella back to you? Jerome on Twitter says palm oil is cheaper and

:11:33. > :11:39.more addictive than sugar but does it give you cancer? Please get in

:11:40. > :11:45.touch with us in the usual ways. If you are texting you will be charged.

:11:46. > :11:51.Now some sport. Southampton are halfway to Wembley. Advantage

:11:52. > :11:59.Southampton after the first leg of their EFL tie with Liverpool last

:12:00. > :12:04.night. The goal from Nathan Redmond giving them an advantage. It was

:12:05. > :12:08.that poor performance from Liverpool, you have to say.

:12:09. > :12:11.Southampton will be frustrated they didn't score more. That poor

:12:12. > :12:18.performance riled manager Jurgen Klopp. We wait to see who they will

:12:19. > :12:24.face. It could be Hull or Manchester United in the final. Explain why

:12:25. > :12:30.Manchester city have been charged over anti-doping rules? They have

:12:31. > :12:36.failed to lay out the rules. Football clubs have to outline where

:12:37. > :12:42.their players are at all times, be it at home, in hotels if they are

:12:43. > :12:48.travelling for matches, so that the drug testers always know where they

:12:49. > :12:54.are. Manchester City have failed to do this on three occasions. It has

:12:55. > :12:57.led to this charge. We wait to see what punishment will come. We think

:12:58. > :13:03.it will be a financial punishment but that depends whether City will

:13:04. > :13:06.appeal and can argue there have been some mitigating circumstances as to

:13:07. > :13:08.why they failed to disclose this information.

:13:09. > :13:09.We're building up to the Australian Open,

:13:10. > :13:18.Good news that Andy Murray. He goes into the Australian open and will be

:13:19. > :13:22.seeded number one for the first time in his career. Novak Djokovic is

:13:23. > :13:27.number two. They will be kept apart until the latter stages. A lot of

:13:28. > :13:33.other British players going well, Johanna Konta faces Eugenie Bouchard

:13:34. > :13:38.in the Sydney International later. She's going well. Johanna Konta made

:13:39. > :13:42.it through to the semifinals of the Australian Open last year. Dan Evans

:13:43. > :13:47.is in third-round action at the moment against Dominic Thiem. I

:13:48. > :13:52.could see him progress to the semifinals in Sydney as well. Not

:13:53. > :13:58.such good news for Laura Robson, she fell at the first round of

:13:59. > :14:01.qualifying for the Australian Open. She has been struggling with a

:14:02. > :14:06.really bad wrist industry. Really difficult times for her.

:14:07. > :14:09.And London welcomes another American sport tonight.

:14:10. > :14:24.The O2 Arena will be sold out later for a regular-season NBA game

:14:25. > :14:28.between the Indiana Pacers and the Denver Nuggets. Interesting but the

:14:29. > :14:32.NBA commissioner had to say, he said while they would like to commit to

:14:33. > :14:37.more regular-season games being played in London, he said the Brexit

:14:38. > :14:40.vote may lead them to reconsider their long-term commitment to

:14:41. > :14:44.playing games in London. That will be an interesting one to see how

:14:45. > :14:48.that plays out. A packed house at the O2 later on.

:14:49. > :14:50.Eight days before his inauguration, President-elect Donald Trump

:14:51. > :14:52.is facing the extraordinary claim that he is vulnerable

:14:53. > :14:55.It all centres around unsubstantiated allegations

:14:56. > :14:57.which the Russians are said to have compiled

:14:58. > :14:59.about his private and professional life.

:15:00. > :15:01.The allegations are contained in a dossier written

:15:02. > :15:06.Speaking in his first press conference for six months,

:15:07. > :15:08.the President-elect suggested the American intelligence agencies

:15:09. > :15:11.could be responsible for leaking the claims,

:15:12. > :15:15.but overnight the US intelligence chief has denied this.

:15:16. > :15:18.Mr Trump was openly contemptuous of CNN and BuzzFeed,

:15:19. > :15:20.the main US outlets responsible for publicising the sex dossier.

:15:21. > :15:32.Go ahead. Mr President-elect.

:15:33. > :15:35.since you are attacking our news organisation...

:15:36. > :15:38.Your organisation's terrible. Your organisation's terrible.

:15:39. > :15:42.Go ahead. Quiet. Quiet.

:15:43. > :15:45.Go ahead, she is asking a question, don't be rude.

:15:46. > :15:48.I am not going to give you a question, you are fake news.

:15:49. > :15:52.I think it was disgraceful, disgraceful, that the intelligence

:15:53. > :15:55.agencies allowed any information that turned out to be

:15:56. > :16:06.I think it was a disgrace, and that's something

:16:07. > :16:08.that Nazi Germany would have done and did do.

:16:09. > :16:14.I'm also very much of a germophone, by the way, believe me.

:16:15. > :16:18.As far as BuzzFeed, which is a failing pile of garbage,

:16:19. > :16:21.writing it, I think they're going to suffer the consequences,

:16:22. > :16:24.As far as hacking, I think it was Russia,

:16:25. > :16:27.but I think we also got hacked by other countries and other people.

:16:28. > :16:31.If Putin likes Donald Trump, guess what, folks,

:16:32. > :16:35.that's called an asset, not a liability.

:16:36. > :16:38.Now I don't know that I'm going to get along

:16:39. > :16:43.I hope they do, but there's a good chance I won't.

:16:44. > :16:46.And if I don't, do you honestly believe that Hillary

:16:47. > :16:50.Does anybody in this room really believe that?

:16:51. > :16:56.We could make deals in Russia very easily if we wanted to,

:16:57. > :16:59.because I think that would be a conflict.

:17:00. > :17:04.So I have no loans, no dealings and no current pending deals.

:17:05. > :17:08.Every President since the '70s has had a required audit from the IRS...

:17:09. > :17:13.You know, the only one that cares about my tax returns

:17:14. > :17:18.I don't feel like waiting a year, a year and a half,

:17:19. > :17:23.and there are many different forms, will reimburse us.

:17:24. > :17:26.These papers are all just a piece of the many, many companies

:17:27. > :17:32.that are being put into trust to be run by my two sons,

:17:33. > :17:35.and I hope that the end of eight years

:17:36. > :17:38.I'll come back and I'll say, "Oh, you did a good job."

:17:39. > :17:40.Otherwise, if they do a bad job, I'll say, "You're fired".

:17:41. > :17:50.Well, Mr Trump has been contemptuous about

:17:51. > :17:52.the unsubstantiated allegations, calling them fake news.

:17:53. > :17:56.They've also been dismissed by Moscow as pulp fiction.

:17:57. > :17:58.But their significance is that, if true, the President-elect

:17:59. > :18:02.of the United States would be vulnerable

:18:03. > :18:06.The head of US intelligence, James Clapper,

:18:07. > :18:10.has denied that the 35-page dossier came from his operatives.

:18:11. > :18:13.He's also said that his teams haven't decided yet

:18:14. > :18:16.whether or not the information is reliable.

:18:17. > :18:19.BBC correspondent Paul Wood says the author of the Trump dossier

:18:20. > :18:23.is a British ex-spy called Christopher Steele

:18:24. > :18:27.He was formerly an MI6 officer who worked in Moscow.

:18:28. > :18:30.Mr Steele has now fled his home in Surrey and gone into hiding

:18:31. > :18:34.after telling his neighbour to look after his cat.

:18:35. > :18:35.Our correspondent says he's highly respected

:18:36. > :18:41.That's why the claims in the dossier,

:18:42. > :18:44.although salacious and unverified, were said to taken so seriously

:18:45. > :18:48.by US intelligence and ended up on President Obama's desk last week.

:18:49. > :18:53.Well, let's not lose sight of the central allegation here,

:18:54. > :18:57.which is that Donald Trump, President-elect

:18:58. > :19:00.of the United States, is vulnerable to blackmail by the Russians.

:19:01. > :19:05.so much depends on the credibility of the author of this dossier.

:19:06. > :19:10.He has now been named as Christopher Steele,

:19:11. > :19:13.a former MI6 agent who was in Moscow in the early 1990s.

:19:14. > :19:16.And speaking to one intelligence source, he is apparently very highly

:19:17. > :19:19.regarded among his peers as competent and trustworthy,

:19:20. > :19:25.and that reputation, I think, is one of the main reasons

:19:26. > :19:28.why what he said, the allegations he repeated from Russian security

:19:29. > :19:33.by the American intelligence institutions.

:19:34. > :19:36.I spoke to one intermediary, because you can't speak

:19:37. > :19:41.to CIA case officers directly, but I spoke to an intermediary,

:19:42. > :19:44.and a message came back from the people dealing with this file

:19:45. > :19:47.that they found it credible, that there was more than one tape,

:19:48. > :19:50.that there was an audio tape, as well as a video tape,

:19:51. > :19:53.that there were several times that these activities

:19:54. > :19:56.supposedly took place, and in more than one location,

:19:57. > :20:01.not just the Ritz-Carlton in Moscow, but St Petersburg as well.

:20:02. > :20:03.Now, the fact that the CIA apparently finds

:20:04. > :20:09.and credible enough to put on President Obama's desk,

:20:10. > :20:11.is not them saying they believe the allegations,

:20:12. > :20:14.they are just saying they are worthy of consideration.

:20:15. > :20:17.One further thing, this former MI6 officer is not the only source.

:20:18. > :20:20.I spoke to a retired spy last August,

:20:21. > :20:23.who said he had been told of the existence of a blackmail tape

:20:24. > :20:29.by the head of an Eastern European intelligence agency over the summer.

:20:30. > :20:31.We should stress in all of this these are just allegations,

:20:32. > :20:35.when he says they are unsubstantiated.

:20:36. > :20:37.Nevertheless, Americans are in the incredible position,

:20:38. > :20:41.nine days before the inauguration, of having to decide

:20:42. > :20:49.whether their President-elect is a Russian agent of influence.

:20:50. > :20:57.Paul Wood, our correspondent. We're going to talk to some American

:20:58. > :21:00.voters later in the programme, we have fillip from Kentucky with us.

:21:01. > :21:07.-- Philip. Also Dr Brian Klaas,

:21:08. > :21:09.a fellow in politics at London School

:21:10. > :21:10.of Economics, Alana Horowitz from

:21:11. > :21:11.the Huffington Post website, and Dr Leslie Vinjamuri,

:21:12. > :21:17.from the think-tank Let me start with you, you voted for

:21:18. > :21:24.Donald Trump a little while ago, do you believe these sex allegations?

:21:25. > :21:31.Believe in what allegations? The sex allegations around Donald Trump. The

:21:32. > :21:35.sex allegations? Yes. Oh, I'm not sure whether or not, I don't know

:21:36. > :21:42.whether there is any group at there, really. So you are not clear? If

:21:43. > :21:45.true, would it be any stew for you that Mr Trump consorted with

:21:46. > :21:51.prostitutes in a Moscow hotel room? -- would it be an issue. It wouldn't

:21:52. > :21:56.be a good thing, but there are presidents who have probably done it

:21:57. > :22:00.before. Is that a fair point? I think the allegations are deeply

:22:01. > :22:05.troubling, and I don't think we know whether they are true yet. We

:22:06. > :22:09.definitely don't! What I would like to say is, even if you take the

:22:10. > :22:13.dossier out of this, Donald Trump last held a press conference

:22:14. > :22:19.hundreds of days ago, and he invited Russia to hack into Hillary

:22:20. > :22:23.Clinton's e-mails. He also has a campaign manager... So Russia does

:22:24. > :22:27.what Donald Trump says? The point is that the allegations go beyond the

:22:28. > :22:30.dossier, there has been a pattern of behaviour where Donald Trump has

:22:31. > :22:33.deeply troubling ties to Moscow, in the sense that his former campaign

:22:34. > :22:40.manager received kickbacks in eastern Ukraine from a pro-Russian

:22:41. > :22:43.politician. He says he has no dealings with Russia, and there is

:22:44. > :22:47.no way you can be a victim of blackmail because the allegations

:22:48. > :22:55.are not true, they are fake, and business dealings with Russia, there

:22:56. > :22:59.are not. This is the crucial point - he's the first candidate since the

:23:00. > :23:04.1970s not to release his tax returns. He says he is being

:23:05. > :23:10.audited. The head of the IRS says he can still release them. Every single

:23:11. > :23:17.candidate since 1970 has done this, so it is very easily verifiable, he

:23:18. > :23:23.should do it. What do you think? I agree, I think that, you know, we

:23:24. > :23:29.can't take the dossier at face value. Apps it is most troubling...

:23:30. > :23:34.Is it not interesting to you that a former British spy wrote it and it

:23:35. > :23:37.ended up on Barack Obama's desk? As our correspondent said, that

:23:38. > :23:43.wouldn't end up on the President's desk unless there is something

:23:44. > :23:48.credible about it. Intelligence officials told CNN they feel he is a

:23:49. > :23:51.trustworthy source, so there were these blackmail allegations, and as

:23:52. > :23:55.much as the salacious sex allegations, they are fun to read

:23:56. > :24:01.headlines about, it is only a small piece of the puzzle. Just to say,

:24:02. > :24:06.Paul Wood, our correspondent, says he has been told by an intermediary,

:24:07. > :24:11.not a source at the CIA, that there is more than one tape, this happened

:24:12. > :24:15.not just in Moscow but St Petersburg. We still don't really

:24:16. > :24:23.know how credible all this is. But I think it speaks volumes that a lot

:24:24. > :24:27.of voters and experts, you know, believe that it could possibly

:24:28. > :24:30.happen. Like, it doesn't seem that out of character based on his other

:24:31. > :24:36.Russian ties, based on his behaviour, based on what he has done

:24:37. > :24:39.when he was running for office. I think that speaks a lot to his

:24:40. > :24:45.trustworthiness, his approval rating has tagged in recent days. You are

:24:46. > :24:50.from Chatham House, the think tank, how are you reading all of this? My

:24:51. > :24:54.concern, of course we are waiting to see, because it is being given a lot

:24:55. > :24:59.of scrutiny, to the veracity of this dossier. But the real concern right

:25:00. > :25:03.now is Donald Trump's response to it, right? We are looking to see how

:25:04. > :25:08.it will affect the next President's relationship with the intelligence

:25:09. > :25:12.agencies - this is not looking good. How will it affect America's

:25:13. > :25:15.relationship with Russia, what are the obligations? I think measuring

:25:16. > :25:23.his response, it was interesting yesterday to watch his interactions

:25:24. > :25:27.with the media, his attacks on the intelligence agencies, in some ways

:25:28. > :25:31.the most deeply troubling thing. He is at war with his own intelligence

:25:32. > :25:36.agencies. The response we would be looking for is that these are very

:25:37. > :25:40.serious allegations, not only the dossier, but the broader question of

:25:41. > :25:44.the disinformation campaign. To me, that is potentially the more

:25:45. > :25:47.troubling part, right? If he was aware of these allegations or

:25:48. > :25:54.engaged with the broader disinformation campaign, the cyber

:25:55. > :25:56.attacks, the hacking, then we have a very serious national security

:25:57. > :26:00.problem on our hands. So where does it go from here? There are senators

:26:01. > :26:03.like John McCain, Republican, no fan of Donald Trump, talking about

:26:04. > :26:10.hearing is with the intelligence agencies about the claims, possible

:26:11. > :26:15.impeachment - this is before he is inaugurated! The timing is

:26:16. > :26:19.difficult. Bearing in mind this has been framed as the worst kept secret

:26:20. > :26:24.in Washington, plenty of people have seen this dossier, it is not new

:26:25. > :26:29.news for people in think tanks and elsewhere. There is a sense that it

:26:30. > :26:32.needed to be dealt with, but the timing is very difficult, because

:26:33. > :26:37.this is at the same time, yesterday was quite extraordinary, Rex

:26:38. > :26:41.Tillerson, Secretary of State, at the same time as the news

:26:42. > :26:45.conference. Explain the significance of that. One is going back and forth

:26:46. > :26:50.between Tillerson discussing the future of US engagement with Russia,

:26:51. > :26:54.being as clear questions, would he stick to sanctions? At the same time

:26:55. > :26:57.as the President-elect is being forced to respond to questions about

:26:58. > :27:03.whether he himself was engaged and had knowledge of Russia's attempts

:27:04. > :27:09.to hack into and influence the US elections. So those are, you know,

:27:10. > :27:13.contingencies, right? They are developments that affect each other.

:27:14. > :27:17.Tillerson, you know, said very clearly that his view would be that

:27:18. > :27:20.we should stick to the status quo until there is a more competent of

:27:21. > :27:26.strategy for the US relationship with Russia. As a voter, Philip, do

:27:27. > :27:35.you want to see Donald Trump's tax returns? I don't know it sadly what

:27:36. > :27:39.we would get out a bit. It would probably clear up a few things for

:27:40. > :27:45.people if he would satisfy a few people, if he would show them. Are

:27:46. > :27:50.you interested in an explanation as to why he has not so far, or does it

:27:51. > :27:54.not bother you? I mean, I'm not too worried about it, I figure somewhere

:27:55. > :28:00.along the line he will eventually have to show them. But I don't think

:28:01. > :28:04.it is that big a deal to me. Where are you on relations between the US

:28:05. > :28:09.and Russia? We had Donald Trump in at press conference, if I get on

:28:10. > :28:13.with Putin, that is an asset, he is right, isn't he? I don't think so,

:28:14. > :28:17.because the reason that the US and Russia are not friends is because

:28:18. > :28:20.Russian foreign policy is predicated on undermining liberal Western

:28:21. > :28:25.democracy on the global stage. But they might perhaps change his

:28:26. > :28:28.approach? I think that is a very naive assessment, because every

:28:29. > :28:33.president that has and estimated Vladimir Putin on the global stage

:28:34. > :28:36.has been outfoxed by him, and it is something where he is an

:28:37. > :28:40.authoritarian thugs, and at some point we have to acknowledge that

:28:41. > :28:43.American values do not correspond with Russian values on the global

:28:44. > :28:47.stage. That foreign policy disconnect exists for a reason. I

:28:48. > :28:52.think it is the bleak troubling that Tillerson, the Secretary of State

:28:53. > :28:56.nominee, was awarded the highest civilian honour by Vladimir Putin.

:28:57. > :28:59.Even outside this dossier, even if all these claims are false, daddy

:29:00. > :29:04.bleak troubling allegations about the ties between the soon be most

:29:05. > :29:06.powerful man in the Western world, the linchpin of Western liberal

:29:07. > :29:13.democracy, and how much he's willing to do to get along with Vladimir

:29:14. > :29:17.Putin. Will he say that the invasion of Ukraine and the Crimea, you are

:29:18. > :29:21.going to get a free pass? You are going to get a free pass for trying

:29:22. > :29:25.to influence American voting? Those things are troubling, and that some

:29:26. > :29:33.point you have to say now. I completely agree with that, we have

:29:34. > :29:38.much more to lose than to gain with them becoming chums. I think Trump

:29:39. > :29:42.is very vulnerable to, you know, being influenced, he has proven

:29:43. > :29:47.himself to be very gullible, the conspiracies that he has brought up

:29:48. > :29:50.over he is - I mean, one point that people brought up yesterday is that

:29:51. > :29:53.he is attacking the media for bringing up unverified claims, but

:29:54. > :29:58.he is the one who first started bringing up the idea that Obama was

:29:59. > :30:02.not born in the US. Really, that was the most unverified claim that I can

:30:03. > :30:08.think of in modern politics. A quick final thought from you, should

:30:09. > :30:17.Buzzfeed have published a dossier with unverifiable, and there and

:30:18. > :30:22.unverifiable claims, with a warning saying, we seriously doubt these

:30:23. > :30:26.allegations are true? Personally, I wouldn't have, I understand the

:30:27. > :30:29.logic as to why they did, which is, well, we have the report that there

:30:30. > :30:33.was this dossier, people are going to debate it, they have the right to

:30:34. > :30:36.know what they are debating. I probably wouldn't have, but I

:30:37. > :30:41.understand why they did. Thank you for, another programme.

:30:42. > :30:49.We'll put your questions on the row over Trump's alleged links to Moscow

:30:50. > :30:54.to our diplomatic correspondence Paul Adams. Paul has the knowledge

:30:55. > :30:58.of Christopher Steele, the British spy, former British spy I should

:30:59. > :31:00.say, who wrote this dossier which ended up on President Obama's desk

:31:01. > :31:07.last week. Still to come, we'll hear

:31:08. > :31:10.from a mum of two, who, driving while drunk,

:31:11. > :31:12.hit and injured a cyclist. She pleaded guilty to drink

:31:13. > :31:13.driving and leaving Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson

:31:14. > :31:18.flies out to join Greece and Turkey in landmark talks to reunify

:31:19. > :31:20.the divided island of Cyprus. We speak to a Greek

:31:21. > :31:23.and a Turkish Cypriot about how Here's Annita in the BBC Newsroom

:31:24. > :31:42.with a summary of todays news. The US Director of National

:31:43. > :31:44.Intelligence has rejected suggestions made by Donald Trump

:31:45. > :31:47.that official intelligence agencies leaked claims that Russia had

:31:48. > :31:49.compromising material on him. In a statement, James Clapper said

:31:50. > :31:51.he had called the President-elect to say the information had not come

:31:52. > :32:10.from the security services. The Huffington Post so there is an

:32:11. > :32:15.issue with Donald Trump and many US citizens. We still don't know how

:32:16. > :32:20.many credible this is. I think it speaks volumes that a lot of voters

:32:21. > :32:26.and experts believe it could possibly happen. It doesn't seem

:32:27. > :32:27.that out of character based on his other Russia ties, based on his

:32:28. > :32:32.behaviour. More than 3,000 American troops,

:32:33. > :32:34.tanks, and armoured vehicles arrive in Poland today,

:32:35. > :32:36.the United States' biggest military presence in the region

:32:37. > :32:38.since the Cold War. It's to support a Nato operation

:32:39. > :32:41.to deter any Russian aggression towards countries in eastern Europe,

:32:42. > :32:43.since the conflict in Ukraine and the Russian

:32:44. > :32:44.annexation of Crimea. The troops arrival comes just days

:32:45. > :32:47.before the inauguration of Donald Trump, who's signalled

:32:48. > :32:49.he wants to improve A number of major retailers have

:32:50. > :32:54.published their sales figures for the Christmas

:32:55. > :32:57.period this morning. M reported a 2.3% rise in clothing

:32:58. > :33:00.sales in the 13 weeks Meanwhile, Tesco says its third

:33:01. > :33:08.quarter sales were up by 1.8%. And, John Lewis has reported a 2.7%

:33:09. > :33:11.rise in like-for-like sales over Temperatures across the UK

:33:12. > :33:18.are expected to fall over the next couple of days,

:33:19. > :33:20.bringing the possibility The Met Office has issued

:33:21. > :33:25.yellow "Be Aware" warnings In Scotland, travellers face another

:33:26. > :33:29.day of wintry weather conditions with snow and winds up to 70mph

:33:30. > :33:36.forecast throughout the day. Plans for the UK's first

:33:37. > :33:38.hydro-electric tidal lagoon will take a significant

:33:39. > :33:41.step forward today. A report from the former energy

:33:42. > :33:45.minister Charles Hendy concludes that the technology can deliver

:33:46. > :33:47.a secure supply of clean energy, with Swansea Bay the front runner

:33:48. > :33:54.for the ?1.3 billion project. That's a summary of the latest BBC

:33:55. > :33:59.News - more at 10:00am. Here's some sport now

:34:00. > :34:01.with John Watson. Southampton are a step

:34:02. > :34:04.closer to Wembley. They beat Liverpool 1-0

:34:05. > :34:06.in the first leg of the EFL Cup semi-final last night,

:34:07. > :34:08.Nathan Redmond with the goal. The return leg is at Anfield

:34:09. > :34:12.is in a fortnight's time. Manchester City have been charged

:34:13. > :34:14.by the Football Association, Clubs must supply information

:34:15. > :34:18.about the whereabouts of their players so that drug

:34:19. > :34:21.testers know where they are, but the club failed to do

:34:22. > :34:24.so on three occasions, having failed to update training

:34:25. > :34:30.details when schedules changed. England captain Alastair Cook

:34:31. > :34:32.will meet director of cricket Andrew Strauss on Friday,

:34:33. > :34:35.but no decision on his role England lost their recent

:34:36. > :34:42.series against India 4-0. Andy Murray is in Melbourne,

:34:43. > :34:45.ahead of the Australian Open draw which takes place in the early hours

:34:46. > :34:47.of Friday morning. Laura Robson and Tara Moore

:34:48. > :35:09.won't be in the draw, More sport at 10am. You may have

:35:10. > :35:13.heard, in Britain today we are going to get thunder snow and Carol is

:35:14. > :35:16.going to explain what thunder snow is and how it's going to affect you

:35:17. > :35:27.and which parts of Britain. Hit and run driver cause more than

:35:28. > :35:31.17,000 crashes every year, more than one in ten of road accidents where

:35:32. > :35:35.someone is injured. But what makes people leave the scene of an

:35:36. > :35:38.accident? Criminology is in Leicester have interviewed hundreds

:35:39. > :35:43.of people who admit they failed to stop after an accident. Many say

:35:44. > :35:47.they panicked and fled or were drunk. Alarmingly, others said they

:35:48. > :35:52.didn't think it was serious enough to report, or didn't realise it was

:35:53. > :35:57.a crime to leave the scene of an accident. We can speak to Sarah who

:35:58. > :36:01.hit and injured a cyclist while driving drunk in 2014. She pleaded

:36:02. > :36:06.guilty to drink-driving and leaving the scene of the accident. Sarah

:36:07. > :36:10.isn't your real name, you've asked us to change it because you are now

:36:11. > :36:14.trying to rebuild your life. I wonder if you could take us back to

:36:15. > :36:21.the day of the crash and what happened. I remember buying alcohol,

:36:22. > :36:26.and receiving a phone call from my partner who was in hospital at the

:36:27. > :36:30.time, saying he could receive visitors. I remember walking to my

:36:31. > :36:40.car and then I have no recollection of the 35 mile Drive, until I came

:36:41. > :36:44.to in my car with the wind screen smashed in. I instantly knew I had

:36:45. > :36:51.been in an accident. How much had you drunk before you got in the car?

:36:52. > :36:57.I would approximate between a half and a full bottle of vodka. OK. This

:36:58. > :37:02.was because you had a relapse because you are an alcoholic? I am

:37:03. > :37:08.an alcoholic, yes. You had a number of years sober and this was a

:37:09. > :37:13.relapse that summer. Yes. You blacked out, as you say, and what

:37:14. > :37:17.you remember is effectively waking up and being pulled out of your own

:37:18. > :37:24.car with the windscreen smashed, by a police officer. Yes. When did you

:37:25. > :37:30.realise you'd hit a cyclist? 15 seconds before the police man came,

:37:31. > :37:37.and I saw the carnage, then he came, pulled me out and told me what I had

:37:38. > :37:43.done. How did you respond to that? I was sickened and scared, full of

:37:44. > :37:51.fear. He told me straightaway that luckily he was OK and was going to

:37:52. > :37:55.survive, but he was very cross, the policeman was extremely cross. And I

:37:56. > :38:03.can understand that. How did you know he was cross with you? His

:38:04. > :38:07.voice, the way he extracted me from the car. I'm not saying what he did

:38:08. > :38:15.was wrong in any way. He was doing his job. But I knew what I had done

:38:16. > :38:29.was serious. How drunk were you when he pulled you out? Berry. -- very. I

:38:30. > :38:33.can recall the moment when he pulled me from the car but I don't recall

:38:34. > :38:37.being taken to the police station, I was in a poor emotional state to be

:38:38. > :38:43.interviewed, so they took me back to the hospital to have me observed

:38:44. > :38:50.overnight. They were worried about my mental state. Can you tell us,

:38:51. > :38:53.presumably from what you learned subsequently, the circumstances of

:38:54. > :38:58.the accident? Where is the cyclist in relation to your car? I have no

:38:59. > :39:05.idea but judging from the damage of my car, I hit him head-on. When I

:39:06. > :39:10.saw my car a couple of days later, it made me physically sick to see

:39:11. > :39:16.the damage that had been done. He must have hit me head on, gone

:39:17. > :39:21.straight into the bonnet, hit the windscreen, and his bicycle went

:39:22. > :39:26.down the side of the car. What with the nature of his injuries? He had a

:39:27. > :39:32.broken collarbone, three broken fingers and a deep cut to his leg.

:39:33. > :39:37.That police officer was right. That guy was lucky to be alive. Extremely

:39:38. > :39:42.lucky. Is where you, potentially. Yes. Goodness. He went to court,

:39:43. > :39:46.pleaded guilty to drink-driving and leaving the scene of an accident.

:39:47. > :39:53.You clearly accepted what you did was wrong. I did. I did, there was

:39:54. > :40:00.no, although I have no memory or recollection, there were witnesses

:40:01. > :40:07.who saw what I did that. I accepted the responsibility. What do you mean

:40:08. > :40:12.that you have no memory of it? I don't know whether I was blacked out

:40:13. > :40:16.or asleep. I used to think an alcoholic blackout was when you just

:40:17. > :40:22.crashed out and went to sleep, but now I know it's where you actually

:40:23. > :40:25.continue to operate and function, but you have no awareness of what

:40:26. > :40:33.you're doing. I don't know how I managed to drive that distance. 35

:40:34. > :40:38.miles. From Bury St Edmunds to Cambridge. I have no idea how I did

:40:39. > :40:42.it. Did you technically leave the scene of the accident? I pleaded

:40:43. > :40:48.guilty to that crime, the policeman told me that is what I had done, so

:40:49. > :40:50.I accepted it. On the advice of a friend who was a solicitor, they

:40:51. > :40:57.said I could have fought that because of the distance that I had

:40:58. > :41:02.travelled. As far as I was concerned, no, I was responsible, I

:41:03. > :41:07.did it and I pleaded guilty. You received a one-year driving ban, a

:41:08. > :41:13.?500 fine and a 110 hours community service. What did you think of that

:41:14. > :41:17.punishment? Very lenient. Very lenient for what I had done.

:41:18. > :41:26.Potentially I could have killed him. Killed myself. Destroyed families,

:41:27. > :41:32.his family, his career. I don't know what his career was, but he had

:41:33. > :41:37.broken fingers. If he was a surgeon, or someone who used his hands, that

:41:38. > :41:43.may have destroyed his career. So I felt that the sentence I was given

:41:44. > :41:48.was very lenient. Had you been sent to prison, for example, you would

:41:49. > :41:55.have lost your home potentially, your job, possibly your children.

:41:56. > :41:59.How many children do you have? Two. You've never met the minute it. He

:42:00. > :42:04.wrote him a letter. What did you say? I expressed my remorse, I

:42:05. > :42:12.explained my situation, not that that is any excuse. That you are an

:42:13. > :42:16.alcoholic? Yes. It is no excuse, but I wanted him to know that I was

:42:17. > :42:26.sorry and I was very remorseful for what I had done. Did you receive a

:42:27. > :42:32.reply? No. Did you expect to? No. If you met him now what would you say?

:42:33. > :42:37.I would ask his forgiveness. I'm not sure whether I would receive it. But

:42:38. > :42:45.there's nothing that I can say or do that can change my past behaviour. I

:42:46. > :42:49.would really want him to know that I am sorry for what I did, and I have

:42:50. > :42:59.put things in place that it won't happen again. Do you live with the

:43:00. > :43:08.guilt, or have you found a way of managing it? I've found a way of

:43:09. > :43:14.managing the guilt. What is that? In the summer of 2015 I went into a

:43:15. > :43:18.rehab centre, which led me to a 12 step fellowship, where I've worked

:43:19. > :43:25.the 12 steps of recovery. In that, you deal with, you learn how to deal

:43:26. > :43:31.with guilt, shame, anger, hate, remorse. With the help of my sponsor

:43:32. > :43:35.we'd been through that and she has given me the emotional tools I need

:43:36. > :43:44.to deal with issues like this, when I come up. If I was to let it

:43:45. > :43:48.enveloped me, it would destroy me. If that happens then I go backwards

:43:49. > :43:54.and I can't move forwards. How long have you been sober this time? 18

:43:55. > :44:00.months. You took part in a study by Leicester University looking at why

:44:01. > :44:04.people commit hit and runs. Some people were drunk, others made a

:44:05. > :44:07.calculated decision to drive away. Or, they just didn't think it was a

:44:08. > :44:18.particularly serious crime, or they panic. What do you think of those

:44:19. > :44:21.explanations? I think that, looking at it, I should imagine fear is one

:44:22. > :44:25.of the biggest things that would make someone leave the scene. It's

:44:26. > :44:30.fear of the consequences, if they have been drinking, or they are

:44:31. > :44:35.illegal, the consequences are going to be harsh. They will be taken to

:44:36. > :44:39.court. I believe, obviously they should stay and face the

:44:40. > :44:46.consequences, because they have committed a crime, as I did. It's

:44:47. > :44:51.fear on their part or panic, but that doesn't make it right. Thank

:44:52. > :44:53.you very much for talking to us, Sarah.

:44:54. > :44:57.Coming up, Coronation Street star Simon Gregson reveals his wife Emma

:44:58. > :45:07.as he hits back at trolls criticising his Corrie storyline.

:45:08. > :45:09.As a popular holiday destination, it's easy to forget that

:45:10. > :45:12.Cyprus has been a divided country for more than 40 years.

:45:13. > :45:16.When Turkey launched a military invasion on the island in 1974,

:45:17. > :45:18.it split into the Turkish north and the Greek south.

:45:19. > :45:21.Over the years there have been efforts to reunite the island,

:45:22. > :45:22.but no agreement has ever been reached.

:45:23. > :45:25.But there's hope that fresh talks in Geneva could be more successful.

:45:26. > :45:28.So how did we get here? The BBC's Paul Adam explains.

:45:29. > :45:30.Cyprus has been politically divided for half a century,

:45:31. > :45:33.That's when Turkey launched an invasion.

:45:34. > :45:37.it was there to protect the small Turkish Cypriot minority.

:45:38. > :45:40.There had just been a coup by the larger Greek Cypriot community,

:45:41. > :45:43.with the express aim of uniting Cyprus with Greece.

:45:44. > :45:48.Thousands of people were killed, and as many as 200,000 people,

:45:49. > :45:51.from the north and the south, were displaced.

:45:52. > :45:55.People lost their homes, they lost their businesses.

:45:56. > :45:58.The UN was called in to patrol the so-called Green Line,

:45:59. > :46:00.which divided the island into two parts,

:46:01. > :46:09.Two United Nations tanks moved in to disperse the crowd...

:46:10. > :46:14.Well, you have to remember that Cyprus

:46:15. > :46:16.is a member of the European Union, and, clearly,

:46:17. > :46:19.a member that is divided, in the way that Cyprus is,

:46:20. > :46:24.There does seem to be quite a bit of optimism that a deal

:46:25. > :46:29.is finally possible to resolve this long conflict.

:46:30. > :46:31.This is going to be difficult, and it's possible.

:46:32. > :46:34.It's going to be difficult because obviously even if the majority

:46:35. > :46:36.of issues have been solved in all chapters,

:46:37. > :46:40.it is not the easiest questions that we have left at the end.

:46:41. > :46:42.It has to be said - we have been here before.

:46:43. > :46:45.There was a referendum on a peace deal back in 2004.

:46:46. > :46:48.This is going to be difficult, and it's possible.

:46:49. > :46:51.The Turkish Cypriots agreed to it, the Greek Cypriots said no.

:46:52. > :46:53.So there's been a lot more diplomacy, particularly

:46:54. > :46:55.in the last few months, and, crucially, the Turkish

:46:56. > :46:59.president, President Erdogan, also seems to favour a settlement.

:47:00. > :47:06.So the omens do seem better than they've been for quite a long time.

:47:07. > :47:09.Let's talk now to Greek Cypriots Elaine Tofaris

:47:10. > :47:12.and Christos Karaolis, both of their families

:47:13. > :47:14.are originally from the northern part of the island.

:47:15. > :47:16.We also have Onur Ibrahim and Hasan Raif,

:47:17. > :47:20.And Dr Rebecca Bryant, from the London School

:47:21. > :47:32.of Economics' Europe Institute, joins us from Cyprus.

:47:33. > :47:40.Christos, tell our British audience how this split affected your dad in

:47:41. > :47:44.terms of his home. So my dad is from is from the northern part of the

:47:45. > :47:48.island, and he was a wee here in the 1970s to set up Greek schools, and

:47:49. > :47:53.following the invasion he was not able to return to his home in

:47:54. > :47:57.Morphou. He couldn't get access to it. What do you mean? Following the

:47:58. > :48:01.invasion, there was the establishment of the Green Line, and

:48:02. > :48:08.my father was not able to get access to his property in Morphou, likewise

:48:09. > :48:14.his sister gave birth to my cousin on the 22nd of July 1974, two days

:48:15. > :48:20.after the invasion, in Morphou. She packed in some photo albums,

:48:21. > :48:25.suitcases, got in her car with their husband, and just drove south. So

:48:26. > :48:30.for my dad and his family, and my mum's family, it is a really tragic

:48:31. > :48:34.story of picking up what you can and leaving, just fleeing south. Just

:48:35. > :48:39.explain, people want to learn more, because as the talks are going on,

:48:40. > :48:42.why did she drive south? Why couldn't she stay? The Turkish army

:48:43. > :48:47.was advancing from the northern part of the island, there is about 40

:48:48. > :48:51.kilometres between Turkey and Cyprus, the army was advancing

:48:52. > :48:55.north, and so for her it was a question of picking up what you can

:48:56. > :48:59.get and driving south. She was worried for her safety, she had a

:49:00. > :49:06.newborn child, get out as quick as you can. Onur, your family and

:49:07. > :49:12.Turkish Cypriots, tell us what happened back in 1974, how it

:49:13. > :49:18.affected your family. So my father was made a refugee in the 1960s, so

:49:19. > :49:26.previous 21974, there was another civil uprising that led to the

:49:27. > :49:30.situation. -- previous to. They will force to leave their village on the

:49:31. > :49:36.eastern side of the mountains and lived as refugees until the

:49:37. > :49:40.beginning of the 1970s, when my father decided he wanted to educate

:49:41. > :49:46.himself. He managed to work at a beach bar and save the money to come

:49:47. > :49:50.to London, he enrolled in a college and got a degree in Electrical

:49:51. > :49:55.engineering. He began his career with the ambition of going back to

:49:56. > :50:03.Cyprus, to live and work in Cyprus, but he was not able to do that.

:50:04. > :50:06.Explain why. The situation in 1974 was very complicated. Go is

:50:07. > :50:13.subsequently, why couldn't he go back? As a community, we were

:50:14. > :50:17.stronger together before 1974. Post-1974, the division lead to more

:50:18. > :50:22.than just a geographic division, it was a cultural division between two

:50:23. > :50:26.people of the same culture, very similar. We're much more similar

:50:27. > :50:31.than we are different. Would you agree with that, Elaine? I think

:50:32. > :50:37.Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots are very similar. More similar than

:50:38. > :50:42.different? My father left Cyprus in 1955, and here are members working

:50:43. > :50:47.alongside Turkish Cypriots, so he was not really involved in trouble

:50:48. > :50:52.in that sense. But I mean, the war that happened in 1974, it has often

:50:53. > :50:56.been described in the media as being almost amicable, drifting

:50:57. > :51:01.separately, the Greeks going south, the Turks going north. And actually

:51:02. > :51:08.it was a very brutal time, a very terrible time. As Christos has just

:51:09. > :51:14.described, tell us about your family. I was born here, but it is

:51:15. > :51:19.an overriding memory, I remember the frantic worry, nobody knew where

:51:20. > :51:22.anybody was, our family literally packed, they didn't even have time

:51:23. > :51:26.to take photos, they literally fled for their lives, people were

:51:27. > :51:32.dropping out of the sky, you know, armed soldiers and bombs. And they

:51:33. > :51:37.left in literally what they had on. So as I understand it, you have the

:51:38. > :51:43.deeds to land that your family owned before they had to flee. Why can't

:51:44. > :51:47.you reclaim that? My grandfather was an orphan, he had nine children, and

:51:48. > :51:50.he worked really hard to try to get land so that his children would have

:51:51. > :51:58.some land, as was the way at that time. And it was occupied, and my

:51:59. > :52:02.family, when they fled, they scattered, they dispersed, the whole

:52:03. > :52:06.family, it took away our whole kind of culture and heritage, really,

:52:07. > :52:12.because we were never able to go back. That land was occupied. I

:52:13. > :52:16.mean, so... Sorry, so if there is justice from these talks, that land

:52:17. > :52:20.should be given back to your family? Well, that would be my idea, the

:52:21. > :52:26.original deed owners should be returned to the land, but it goes

:52:27. > :52:31.beyond financial gain. It is a lost history and culture. I have angles

:52:32. > :52:35.and aunties living alone in high-rise flats, but they should be

:52:36. > :52:40.living in their community. I am not saying that time would have stood

:52:41. > :52:46.still. I understand that. Hasan, what are your hopes for these talks

:52:47. > :52:51.in the future? You don't want to ask me the history, then? No, go for it.

:52:52. > :52:58.Well, I believe the whole story started just after the Cypriots

:52:59. > :53:03.Republic fell. You know what? I don't want to go to far back, since

:53:04. > :53:13.1974, the impact on your family, what do you hope from these talks?

:53:14. > :53:18.Well, we had to move from south to north, I stayed three is and then

:53:19. > :53:26.came back to England. -- three years. I am very hopeful for these

:53:27. > :53:36.talks, and hopefully it is going to be sorted out, so we can find a

:53:37. > :53:42.solution. But what about land, property, homes? You know, are

:53:43. > :53:47.people going to be poring over maps to draw lines and borders? What do

:53:48. > :53:51.you think? I think we have representatives that we trust, that

:53:52. > :53:55.we have voted in democratically to represent us on both sides. And as a

:53:56. > :54:00.nation, we have to think about the young people that are coming next.

:54:01. > :54:04.The future generations of a lack of jobs, a lack of infrastructure, and

:54:05. > :54:09.a non-stable financial system. Is that because of the divide? We have

:54:10. > :54:15.a private banking system European banking in the South. We have mixed

:54:16. > :54:20.feelings about transport and travel. We have people migrating from north

:54:21. > :54:26.to south and south to north to work. There is a lot going on. Rebecca

:54:27. > :54:33.Adams,, sorry, Rebecca Bryant, from the London School of Economics, you

:54:34. > :54:42.are in Cyprus, in terms of unifying this land, what are the prospects

:54:43. > :54:46.through these peace talks in Geneva? Well, with these particular peace

:54:47. > :54:51.talks, it is hard to say. I would say that right now the mood in

:54:52. > :54:58.Cyprus, where I happen to be for some research right now, is subdued

:54:59. > :55:02.optimism. People want something to happen, but Cypriots have gone

:55:03. > :55:07.through so many rounds of negotiations, over so many years,

:55:08. > :55:10.that there is a type of exhaustion. So even though people are

:55:11. > :55:14.obsessively following the negotiations that are going on in

:55:15. > :55:19.Geneva right now, people are not entirely sure whether they can hope

:55:20. > :55:23.for it or not. Can I ask you, Rebecca, what are the issues? I feel

:55:24. > :55:28.like I am honing in on property, thousands of people lost homes, is

:55:29. > :55:37.it about territory, boundaries, land? Governance, security. Yes, the

:55:38. > :55:41.main sticking point is that, and part of the reason the main sticking

:55:42. > :55:48.point is that, well, two reasons - one is the complications of what has

:55:49. > :55:54.happened to the land of displaced persons since 1974, particularly in

:55:55. > :55:59.the north, the way that the land was distributed first two displaced

:56:00. > :56:02.Turkish Cypriots, and later to non-displaced Turkish Cypriots, and

:56:03. > :56:07.also people coming from Turkey. And the way that the land has been

:56:08. > :56:11.developed since then has created an incredibly complicated system that

:56:12. > :56:17.is very difficult to unravel. And so how that is going to happen is

:56:18. > :56:22.something that is still really up in the air. It is not entirely clear

:56:23. > :56:28.yet what the mechanisms will be for resolving the property issue. That

:56:29. > :56:32.then is tied up with issues of return - in other words, people may

:56:33. > :56:38.be able to reclaim their property but not necessarily go back to it.

:56:39. > :56:43.Or people may be compensated for it and so on. And it is also tied up

:56:44. > :56:50.with issues of territory, as you say, because for example, yesterday,

:56:51. > :56:55.last night, the two teams, the two leaders presented maps to the United

:56:56. > :57:00.Nations of how they are going to reduce the amount of territory in

:57:01. > :57:08.the Turkish Cypriot constituent state. These were two competing

:57:09. > :57:12.maps, they had agreed at the end of 2016 of the percentage of land that

:57:13. > :57:17.each would present on their maps, how much land would belong to the

:57:18. > :57:22.Turkish Cypriot state after a solution - those maps were put under

:57:23. > :57:30.lock and key by the United Nations, but they became the key to the

:57:31. > :57:35.conference that is going on today. I am going to pause there, Rebecca,

:57:36. > :57:46.thank you very much, I appreciate your time, a lane, Christos, Hasan,

:57:47. > :57:50.Onur. Thank you very much. -- he -- Elaine. The latest news and sport in

:57:51. > :57:54.just a moment, excuse me, thank you very much. We are going to get

:57:55. > :57:58.thundersnow, people are excited about this, including Carol, what is

:57:59. > :58:07.thundersnow? Thunderstorms happen all the time

:58:08. > :58:11.and all over the world as well. Normally, thunderstorms come out of

:58:12. > :58:16.a cumulonimbus cloud, a lot going on inside the clouds, and as they fall

:58:17. > :58:21.into milder conditions, the atmosphere, you will find they fall

:58:22. > :58:26.as rain. But if it is colder at surface level, they fall as snow, so

:58:27. > :58:30.that is essentially thundersnow. But they do create some fabulous

:58:31. > :58:34.displays, because they reflect the snow, and Nick Miller will be

:58:35. > :58:38.talking about it later in the programme, explaining what happens

:58:39. > :58:44.inside a cumulonimbus cloud, easy for you to say! Thank you very much,

:58:45. > :58:48.see you later. Today what we have got is quite a bit of snow, and you

:58:49. > :58:53.can see from these lovely pictures, we have seen it through the course

:58:54. > :58:59.of this morning. This was taken earlier on in the Highlands, and we

:59:00. > :59:02.have got another one as well, lovely sunrise, lying snow in

:59:03. > :59:07.Aberdeenshire, and another one in South Lanarkshire. So there is some

:59:08. > :59:13.snow around. The snow was largely across the northern half of the UK,

:59:14. > :59:16.and it is snow showers, and to the squeezing of those isobars, it is

:59:17. > :59:20.also very windy, so there will be blizzards on the hills. Further

:59:21. > :59:29.south, we have rain coming in Curtis of this area of low pressure. --

:59:30. > :59:32.courtesy. At the moment, we have got mild south-westerly winds, later the

:59:33. > :59:36.wind of years to more of a northwesterly, which is a cold

:59:37. > :59:40.direction, and then we will start to see some sleet and snow in the

:59:41. > :59:43.forecast. This morning, snow showers across covered, northern England,

:59:44. > :59:52.Northern Ireland, some of the heavier showers there, a lot of it

:59:53. > :59:57.in the hills of Wales. A lot of rain, actually, there could be some

:59:58. > :00:01.issues with flooding on the roads, surface water flooding, that is. A

:00:02. > :00:06.cold day in prospect, when you add on the effects of the wind, it will

:00:07. > :00:10.feel even colder, that is the wind chill. As we head to the evening and

:00:11. > :00:14.overnight, we carry on with the showers, through the afternoon as

:00:15. > :00:19.well, across Northern Ireland, across Scotland too. Then there is a

:00:20. > :00:23.risk of ice, as we have got this morning, the same across northern

:00:24. > :00:27.England, in between dry conditions. For the rush hour, we are looking at

:00:28. > :00:31.a snow showers across parts of Wales, trying up across the

:00:32. > :00:35.south-west, and then we run into this rain falling as sleet and snow,

:00:36. > :00:39.particularly over the hills, but we could see some at lower levels. Into

:00:40. > :00:44.the evening, there it goes, pushing down to East Anglia and into care.

:00:45. > :00:49.Behind that, we are looking at a risk of ice, so take care if you are

:00:50. > :00:54.travelling. Now, through the evening and overnight, you can see what is

:00:55. > :00:57.happening, snow showers around, then this band coming across Scotland,

:00:58. > :01:01.moving eventually into northern England. Snow showers across

:01:02. > :01:05.Northern Ireland, Wales, the south-west. This will continue to

:01:06. > :01:09.push southwestwards, getting into the North Midlands and North Wales

:01:10. > :01:15.by the end of the night. Ahead of it cold, but at this stage dry. Picking

:01:16. > :01:18.this up for tomorrow morning's rush-hour, it will continue south,

:01:19. > :01:23.pushing across the London area, East Anglia and Kent before it clears

:01:24. > :01:26.away. Then a lot of dry weather, a bit of sunshine, still chilly in the

:01:27. > :01:31.wind, a peppering of showers, wintry in nature, out towards the north and

:01:32. > :01:35.west. Down the east coast, gales through the North Sea, whipping up

:01:36. > :01:40.some large waves. That will also coincide with the spring tides, so

:01:41. > :01:44.there is the risk of some coastal flooding across parts of the east

:01:45. > :01:45.coast of England. The other thing is that there are also going to be

:01:46. > :01:50.wintry showers. Hello it's Thursday, it's 10

:01:51. > :01:52.o'clock, I'm Victoria Derbyshire. Our top story, a former British

:01:53. > :01:55.spy is now at the heart of the story about claims -

:01:56. > :01:57.ferociously rubbished by Donald Trump - that in Moscow

:01:58. > :02:00.in 2013 Mr Trump fraternised with prostitutes on a bed previously

:02:01. > :02:17.used by President Obama. All fake news, it's phoney stuff, it

:02:18. > :02:26.didn't happen, and it was gotten by opponents of hours. They at that

:02:27. > :02:29.nonsense that was released by, maybe the intelligence agencies, who

:02:30. > :02:32.knows? But maybe the intelligence agencies.

:02:33. > :02:34.But America's intelligence chief tells Mr Trump he doesn't

:02:35. > :02:49.believe his colleagues leaked the allegations.

:02:50. > :02:52.Coronation Street star Simon Gregson - Steve Mcdonald in the soap -

:02:53. > :02:54.reveals his wife Emma has experienced 11 miscarriages

:02:55. > :03:01.as he hits back at trolls criticising his Corrie storyline.

:03:02. > :03:04.Nutella makers fight back after claims that palm oil, one

:03:05. > :03:09.What do you think - does that make you think

:03:10. > :03:26.Here's Anita in the BBC Newsroom with a summary of today's news.

:03:27. > :03:32.In the past few minutes new figures have been released showing the

:03:33. > :03:35.continuing pressure on the NHS in England. Monthly performance data

:03:36. > :03:40.for November shows key targets continue to be missed. These include

:03:41. > :03:45.the 62 day target for cancer treatment to start and the 18 weeks

:03:46. > :03:47.target for routine operations. Victoria will have more on this

:03:48. > :03:52.story in the next half an hour. The US Director of National

:03:53. > :03:54.Intelligence has rejected suggestions made by Donald Trump

:03:55. > :03:56.that official intelligence agencies leaked claims that Russia had

:03:57. > :03:58.compromising material on him. In a statement, James Clapper said

:03:59. > :04:00.he had called the President-elect to say the information had not come

:04:01. > :04:05.from the security services. And at 12:30pm on the BBC

:04:06. > :04:08.News Channel, I'll be putting your questions

:04:09. > :04:13.on the political row over Trump's alleged links to Moscow

:04:14. > :04:15.to our diplomatic correspondent Paul Please get in touch with us

:04:16. > :04:19.to ask those questions. You can text us or send an email

:04:20. > :04:22.or contact us via Twitter More than 3,000 American troops,

:04:23. > :04:26.tanks, and armoured vehicles are arriving in Poland this morning

:04:27. > :04:29.- the United States' biggest military presence

:04:30. > :04:33.in the region since the Cold War. It's to support a Nato operation

:04:34. > :04:36.to deter any Russian aggression towards countries in eastern Europe

:04:37. > :04:39.- since the conflict in Ukraine and the Russian

:04:40. > :04:43.annexation of Crimea. The troops arrival comes just days

:04:44. > :04:45.before the inauguration of Donald Trump, who's signalled

:04:46. > :04:47.he wants to improve A number of major retailers have

:04:48. > :04:53.published their sales figures for the Christmas

:04:54. > :04:55.period this morning. M S reported a 2.3% rise

:04:56. > :04:58.in clothing sales in the 13 weeks Meanwhile, Tesco says its third

:04:59. > :05:08.quarter sales were up by 1.8%. And, John Lewis has reported a 2.7%

:05:09. > :05:12.rise in like-for-like sales over We've had some quite robust figures

:05:13. > :05:27.across the board. It seems the only negative story

:05:28. > :05:30.so far this year have been a Next, with a dismal report,

:05:31. > :05:33.and what we can confirm Overall, it seems to be quite

:05:34. > :05:36.a robust Christmas for everyone. There's been an increase

:05:37. > :05:39.in the number of hit and run Researchers at Leicester university

:05:40. > :05:42.have interviewed hundreds of people who admit they failed to stop

:05:43. > :05:44.after an accident. Many say they panicked and fled

:05:45. > :05:47.while others said they didn't think it was serious enough to report

:05:48. > :06:00.or didn't realise it was One woman who drove after drinking

:06:01. > :06:08.heavily told Victoria she hit a cyclist and left the scene.

:06:09. > :06:11.Potentially I could have killed him, killed myself, destroyed families.

:06:12. > :06:13.Temperatures across the UK are expected to fall over

:06:14. > :06:15.the next couple of days, bringing the possibility

:06:16. > :06:18.The Met Office has issued yellow "Be Aware" warnings

:06:19. > :06:22.In Scotland, travellers face another day of wintry weather conditions

:06:23. > :06:27.with snow and winds up to 70mph forecast throughout the day.

:06:28. > :06:29.Plans for the UK's first hydro-electric tidal lagoon

:06:30. > :06:32.will take a significant step forward today.

:06:33. > :06:36.A report from the former energy minister Charles Hendy concludes

:06:37. > :06:38.that the technology can deliver a secure supply of clean energy,

:06:39. > :06:46.with Swansea Bay the front runner for the ?1.3 billion project.

:06:47. > :06:55.That's a summary of the latest BBC News, more at 10.30.

:06:56. > :07:05.Thank you for your comments on the interview with the hit and run

:07:06. > :07:09.driver, Sarah, not her real name. John e-mailed, in 2015I hit a

:07:10. > :07:13.pedestrian walking in the road in the early hours of the morning. The

:07:14. > :07:18.pedestrian had been drinking. I wasn't charged with the accident

:07:19. > :07:22.because it wasn't my fault. But my first thought after hitting the

:07:23. > :07:26.pedestrian was to run. I didn't, but it was my first thought. The

:07:27. > :07:31.pedestrian survived and made a full recovery. I still have flashbacks

:07:32. > :07:39.and nightmares. Another viewer says, is your hit and run driver expecting

:07:40. > :07:42.sympathy? A tweet, the punishment for the crime of the hit and run

:07:43. > :07:45.driver was ridiculous and I'm glad she knows it. Another viewer says,

:07:46. > :07:48.I'm shocked at the leniency of the sentence for what that woman did.

:07:49. > :07:51.Do get in touch with us throughout the morning use

:07:52. > :07:56.If you text, you'll be charged at the standard network rate.

:07:57. > :08:00.We try to read as many comments as we can, particularly if you have got

:08:01. > :08:03.pertinent experience. Here's some sport now

:08:04. > :08:06.with John Watson, and news of a good Southampton are a step

:08:07. > :08:09.closer to Wembley. They beat Liverpool 1-0

:08:10. > :08:11.in the first leg of the EFL Cup semi-final last night,

:08:12. > :08:17.Nathan Redmond with the goal. In reality, it should have been more

:08:18. > :08:18.for Southampton. It was a poor Liverpool performance, one that left

:08:19. > :08:21.Jurgen Klopp frustrated. The return leg is at Anfield

:08:22. > :08:29.is in a fortnight's time. If you want two disappointed

:08:30. > :08:34.managers after the game, won because they lost, one because they only

:08:35. > :08:38.lost 1-0 and has to go to Anfield. We will strike back, we will be a

:08:39. > :08:46.different team. We will be different everything. For us it's still

:08:47. > :08:58.possible to go to Wembley. We kept clean sheet, we can do a good

:08:59. > :09:03.performance with the ball. I think it's... At the end of the game, with

:09:04. > :09:07.just this win, with one goal up. Manchester City have been charged

:09:08. > :09:10.by the Football Association, Clubs must supply information

:09:11. > :09:12.about the whereabouts of their players so that drug

:09:13. > :09:15.testers know where they are, but the club failed to do

:09:16. > :09:17.so on three occasions, having failed to update training

:09:18. > :09:27.details when schedules changed. It is thought they will be handed a

:09:28. > :09:30.fine rather than a sporting sanction.

:09:31. > :09:32.England captain Alastair Cook will meet director of cricket

:09:33. > :09:34.Andrew Strauss on Friday, but no decision on his role

:09:35. > :09:39.It is thought there is no pressure to make any decision.

:09:40. > :09:41.England lost their recent series against India 4-0.

:09:42. > :09:44.Andy Murray is in Melbourne, ahead of the Australian Open draw

:09:45. > :09:49.which takes place in the early hours of Friday morning.

:09:50. > :09:53.It'll be the first time in his career that Andy Murray has been the

:09:54. > :09:56.top seed at a grand slam. Laura Robson and Tara Moore

:09:57. > :10:07.won't be in the draw, Going well at the moment is British

:10:08. > :10:12.number three Dan Evans who is through to a world tour semifinal

:10:13. > :10:16.for the first time in his career. He produced a stunning comeback to beat

:10:17. > :10:17.Dominic Thiem in the Sydney International. Johanna Konta faces

:10:18. > :10:22.Eugenie Bouchard next. And NBA basketball returns

:10:23. > :10:24.to London this evening. The Denver Nuggets are taking

:10:25. > :10:26.on the Indiana Pacers The NBA Global Games London

:10:27. > :10:38.is celebrating its 10th They'll be excited about being here

:10:39. > :10:42.in London. It's a unique experience that them. Of course they travel a

:10:43. > :10:47.lot throughout the United States and a bit to Canada, but the most part

:10:48. > :10:49.all of our games are on the continental United States. They are

:10:50. > :10:53.going to treat this as a deal for them. The NBA Commissioner speaking

:10:54. > :11:05.there. More sport at 10:30am. With top line involving

:11:06. > :11:15.former British spy now He is now in hiding. Our

:11:16. > :11:19.correspondence says Christopher Steele fled his home in Surrey

:11:20. > :11:26.either yesterday or the day before after asking his neighbour to look

:11:27. > :11:30.after his cat. The dossier contains unsubstantiated claims that Mr Trump

:11:31. > :11:37.watched prostitutes defile a bed in a Moscow hotel room that the Obamas

:11:38. > :11:42.had previously slept in. A furious Donald Trump singled out CNN and

:11:43. > :11:45.Buzzfeed, the main US out that is responsible for publicising the

:11:46. > :11:48.report, he also took a swipe at the BBC.

:11:49. > :11:54.Go ahead. Mr President-elect.

:11:55. > :11:56.Mr President-elect, since you are attacking our

:11:57. > :12:05.Go ahead, she is asking a question, don't be rude.

:12:06. > :12:08.I am not going to give you a question, you are fake news.

:12:09. > :12:17.I think it was disgraceful, disgraceful, that the intelligence

:12:18. > :12:20.agencies allowed any information that turned out to be

:12:21. > :12:23.I think it was a disgrace, and that's something that

:12:24. > :12:25.Nazi Germany would have done and did do.

:12:26. > :12:29.I'm also very much of a germophone, by the way, believe me.

:12:30. > :12:33.As far as BuzzFeed, which is a failing pile of garbage,

:12:34. > :12:36.writing it, I think they're going to suffer the consequences,

:12:37. > :12:44.As far as hacking, I think it was Russia, but I think we also

:12:45. > :12:47.got hacked by other countries and other people.

:12:48. > :12:49.If Putin likes Donald Trump, guess what, folks, that's called

:12:50. > :12:54.Now I don't know that I'm going to get along

:12:55. > :13:00.I hope they do, but there's a good chance I won't.

:13:01. > :13:04.And if I don't, do you honestly believe that Hillary would be

:13:05. > :13:08.Does anybody in this room really believe that?

:13:09. > :13:14.We could make deals in Russia very easily if we wanted to,

:13:15. > :13:16.I just don't want to, because I think that

:13:17. > :13:22.So I have no loans, no dealings and no current pending deals.

:13:23. > :13:26.Every President since the '70s has had a required audit from the IRS...

:13:27. > :13:29.Oh, gee, I've never heard that(!) You know, the only one that cares

:13:30. > :13:34.about my tax returns are the reporters.

:13:35. > :13:39.I don't feel like waiting a year, a year and a half, we're

:13:40. > :13:42.Mexico, in some form, and there are many different

:13:43. > :13:45.These papers are all just a piece of the many,

:13:46. > :13:49.many companies that are being put into trust to be run by my two sons,

:13:50. > :13:53.and I hope that the end of eight years I'll come back and I'll say,

:13:54. > :13:58.Otherwise, if they do a bad job, I'll say, "You're fired".

:13:59. > :14:13.We'd be interested to know if you believe the sex allegations. Let me

:14:14. > :14:18.know if you think BuzzFeed should have published the dossier when it

:14:19. > :14:19.is unverified and unverifiable. Even they said, we doubt these

:14:20. > :14:22.allegations are true. Let's talk to our security

:14:23. > :14:29.correspondent Frank Gardner. Who is Christopher Steele and why is

:14:30. > :14:38.he now at the centre of this story? You could not make up a more

:14:39. > :14:40.salacious, more fascinating story of sex, of intrigue, of political

:14:41. > :14:45.machinations than this one. And trying to find out what is true and

:14:46. > :14:49.what isn't is quite difficult. But it's fascinating. Christopher Steele

:14:50. > :14:56.is a former intelligence officer. He a former officer for the secret

:14:57. > :15:02.intelligence service, better known as MI6. He wasn't an agent, he was

:15:03. > :15:06.an officer. He would have operated as an intelligence gatherer for

:15:07. > :15:13.Britain's overseas intelligence arm. He has worked for something called

:15:14. > :15:19.Orbis which is a business intelligence firm in Britain. He is

:15:20. > :15:27.the author of a 35 page dossier which was compiled last year and

:15:28. > :15:31.which he thought contained or said contained such scurrilous details

:15:32. > :15:38.about President Trump that he handed it to the FBI in August.

:15:39. > :15:46.He was allegedly hired by Trump's opponents to compile this. In

:15:47. > :15:52.America? In America. Well, the allegations in this, and it has been

:15:53. > :15:58.published, by the way, not by the intelligence agencies who have

:15:59. > :16:02.leaked this, but it has leaked out. 35 pages of this, and I think you

:16:03. > :16:08.alluded to it, some pretty salacious details about goings-on in a Moscow

:16:09. > :16:13.hotel room. I don't know if you ever saw the film From Russia With Love?

:16:14. > :16:21.It bears a striking similarity to the fake glass, filming somebody's

:16:22. > :16:25.sexual activities from behind a two-way mirror. There is all of this

:16:26. > :16:30.involved, Donald Trump has said it is nonsense, fake news. Last night,

:16:31. > :16:33.an e-mail when Turan from the directorate of national intelligence

:16:34. > :16:38.in Washington, going around to all the journalists, saying, we did not

:16:39. > :16:41.leak this, we briefed the President-elect, we have briefed the

:16:42. > :16:52.FBI, we have talked to the president, and we did not leak it.

:16:53. > :16:54.If US intelligence agencies are briefing the president, Barack

:16:55. > :17:00.Obama, the President-elect, Donald Trump, the FBI, does that mean...

:17:01. > :17:06.What does it mean? What is the significance of that? If it is fake,

:17:07. > :17:12.why would a bland Barack Obama's desk? That is a very good point.

:17:13. > :17:17.Once was handed to the FBI and was assessed in August, it started to

:17:18. > :17:21.get taken seriously, because I suspect there are elements of it

:17:22. > :17:25.that are true, and elements which are not. There are some misspellings

:17:26. > :17:30.of names, which are causing people to say, well, hang on. People, my

:17:31. > :17:34.colleagues have spoken to them, they have said Christopher Steele is a

:17:35. > :17:39.serious player, you know, a respected intelligence officer, and

:17:40. > :17:45.like many of them, they start second careers at the age of about 50. They

:17:46. > :17:48.leave MI6 or MI5, or wherever they are working, the CIA and the FBI,

:17:49. > :17:53.and they start working for more money with more freedom, working for

:17:54. > :17:57.business intelligence, and he is one of those. It is unusual, I have to

:17:58. > :18:03.say, for someone to be so involved in politics, because obviously the

:18:04. > :18:06.intelligence officers have to be completely apolitical. But he is in

:18:07. > :18:10.the private sector, probably there was a fair bit of money involved.

:18:11. > :18:19.The Russians are delighted that this is being denied by... -- denied by

:18:20. > :18:24.Trump, and one of their organisations as retweeted what

:18:25. > :18:29.Trump has been saying. The allegations are that Russians have

:18:30. > :18:34.kompromat, compromising material on Donald Trump. It involves a tape,

:18:35. > :18:39.details of basically they hold they have got over him. You can see that,

:18:40. > :18:43.given that this guy in less than ten days, is about to have access to the

:18:44. > :18:49.nuclear codes, he is about to be the most powerful man in the world, if

:18:50. > :18:53.there was any truth in this, is it in America's interest for another

:18:54. > :18:58.power, which could possibly come into conflict with the United States

:18:59. > :19:01.one day, we hope that, is it in the US interest for them to have

:19:02. > :19:06.compromising material? Of course not, so they have got to look into

:19:07. > :19:11.it. They have got to alert the people concerned. But so far, the

:19:12. > :19:16.directorate of national intelligence in the US has not said if they think

:19:17. > :19:22.any of this is true or not. OK, thank you very much. Thank you,

:19:23. > :19:24.Frank Gardner, our security correspondent.

:19:25. > :19:26.So what about Americans who voted for Donald Trump?

:19:27. > :19:28.I asked two of them, Amanda Head in California

:19:29. > :19:30.and Alex Chalgran in Colombia, if they believe the claims

:19:31. > :19:33.published by BuzzFeed about Mr Trump fraternising with prostitutes

:19:34. > :19:40.in a Moscow hotel as they defiled a bed slept in by the Obamas.

:19:41. > :19:51.I believe this is about as much as I could throw a Volkswagen.

:19:52. > :19:56.About as much as you could do what?! Throw a Volkswagen! What does that

:19:57. > :20:01.mean? I can't throw a Volkswagen very far! You mean literally! Sorry,

:20:02. > :20:05.OK, I am being really thick! Something that wouldn't happen in

:20:06. > :20:12.real life! Alex, let me ask you, do you believe the claims in this

:20:13. > :20:18.apparent intelligence dossier? Absolutely not, I agree with Amanda,

:20:19. > :20:24.and I think that these allegations, that are completely unsubstantiated,

:20:25. > :20:31.could be borderline seditious almost, because they are assuming

:20:32. > :20:35.that our President-elect, the future President of the United States, has

:20:36. > :20:43.ties with Russia, and that is just, wow, unbelievable. I mean, yeah, it

:20:44. > :20:49.is dangerous dog. I just want to add that BuzzFeed sent out a memo to

:20:50. > :20:54.their employees, admitting there was no fact checking or cross sourcing,

:20:55. > :20:58.and they said, and I quote, we have serious reason to doubt the

:20:59. > :21:06.allegations, but they chose to publish it anyway. The latter half

:21:07. > :21:09.of that... They need to cut them off. You are right, the editor in

:21:10. > :21:14.chief said there are serious reasons to doubt the allegations, but it is

:21:15. > :21:18.not true to say that they had not tried to verify them for a number of

:21:19. > :21:23.weeks - they have tried and failed and took the decision to publish. So

:21:24. > :21:28.you should go ahead and publish it? That is not journalistic integrity.

:21:29. > :21:33.Well, they say, because it is a real story that this dossier is being

:21:34. > :21:37.handed around politicians in the higher echelons of Washington, and

:21:38. > :21:43.they wanted to put it at there for their readers, they is eight, for

:21:44. > :21:47.them to make up their own minds. -- they say. If I may intercede, I

:21:48. > :21:51.think we know that the higher echelons of the seats were not

:21:52. > :21:54.pro-Trump, and I think they have tried to do everything they possibly

:21:55. > :21:59.could to make sure he was not elected, and then to make sure he

:22:00. > :22:05.did not win the electoral vote confirmation. So it is OK for the

:22:06. > :22:09.CIA and some senators, including John McCain, Republican, I know he

:22:10. > :22:13.is no fan of Donald Trump, but it is OK for these people do read the

:22:14. > :22:19.dossier but not the rest of us? Absolutely not, I think these are

:22:20. > :22:27.things which should be substantiated first. All right, yeah, that is fair

:22:28. > :22:30.enough. What do you think, Amanda, of Donald Trump lashing out at the

:22:31. > :22:38.intelligence surfaces for what he said was leaking details of Russia's

:22:39. > :22:42.compromise in information? Here is the thing, and this is one of the

:22:43. > :22:47.things about my radio programme. I call it like I see it, I voted for

:22:48. > :22:51.Trump because the option on the other side was Hillary. I will

:22:52. > :22:56.support him as long as he continues to do the things that he has said he

:22:57. > :23:05.is going to do, and he does it in a manner of integrity. Unfortunately,

:23:06. > :23:09.what he portrays when he is out in public, and at a press conference,

:23:10. > :23:13.bashing our intelligence, this is where it seems a little bit like,

:23:14. > :23:18.you know, like when you are in the elevator with a husband and wife who

:23:19. > :23:21.are bickering, it is just really uncomfortable, not something that

:23:22. > :23:25.anyone else needs to see. I understand there are issues with our

:23:26. > :23:29.intelligence agent, even Barack Obama talked about doubting the

:23:30. > :23:34.credibility of them back in 2012, but those things need to be handled

:23:35. > :23:38.behind closed doors, and you know, sorry Trump, but this is the kind of

:23:39. > :23:44.stuff which you have to bring the public persona down, you cannot

:23:45. > :23:51.tweet every time you argue? Are angry. If you are going to tweet,

:23:52. > :23:56.use facts. Let's talk about his defence of these allegations, he

:23:57. > :24:05.could not possibly have been consorting with prostitute because

:24:06. > :24:11.he is a one! -- he is a germophone. I did not see him say that! Well,

:24:12. > :24:15.that is funny. If this was any other person, I would be, like, that is

:24:16. > :24:19.not a substantial response, but I can see it coming from him. He

:24:20. > :24:24.clearly has some of those OCD tendencies, and I think a lot of

:24:25. > :24:27.those tendencies, and you see this in psychological studies, that they

:24:28. > :24:30.often result in successful people because they are so particular about

:24:31. > :24:36.certain things, and Donald Trump is a success, whether you agree with

:24:37. > :24:40.him or not. I want to ask you about his tax returns, do you want to see

:24:41. > :24:44.his tax returns published? He did refer yesterday to the fact that his

:24:45. > :24:52.business interests will be handed over, the leadership of his business

:24:53. > :24:54.interests will be handed to his sons wily as President, do you want to

:24:55. > :25:00.see his tax returns published? No, I care what he does in office. I would

:25:01. > :25:07.kind of like to see dad, to be honest with you. And the reason why,

:25:08. > :25:13.I trust Trump completely, and that is why I voted for him, and I worked

:25:14. > :25:16.very hard with his campaign. But there again, I think that to make

:25:17. > :25:20.sure that everything is completely detached from his duty as president,

:25:21. > :25:25.from his former work, I think it is safe to see that is happening. You

:25:26. > :25:30.know, there are so many different things going around right now, the

:25:31. > :25:37.company and all these other things, it is just hard to tell. OK, thank

:25:38. > :25:38.you both so much for talking to a British audience, we really

:25:39. > :25:44.appreciated, thank you very much. Still to come, Coronation Street

:25:45. > :25:47.star Simon Gregson, Steve McDonald in the soap,

:25:48. > :25:50.reveals his wife Emma has as he hits back at trolls

:25:51. > :25:55.criticising his Corrie storyline. The NHS has released its monthly

:25:56. > :25:58.figures for November operation waits and delays

:25:59. > :26:13.on patients being discharged. The data shows key targets are still

:26:14. > :26:17.being missed, including the 62 day target for cancer treatment to

:26:18. > :26:22.start, and the 18 week target for routine operations. Yesterday the

:26:23. > :26:25.Prime Minister defended the Government's handling of the NHS.

:26:26. > :26:32.Jeremy Corbyn accused her of being in denial. We can talk to people

:26:33. > :26:34.across the country about the pressure of the NHS impacting on our

:26:35. > :26:37.lives. her grandad's cancer operation

:26:38. > :26:41.was cancelled twice in one week. Nigel Charles, talking to us

:26:42. > :26:44.from Devon, was rushed to hospital with a clot in the lung

:26:45. > :26:46.caused by cancer. He had to wait 12 hours on a trolley

:26:47. > :26:50.before they could find him a bed. And Pip Holman in London, who's been

:26:51. > :26:53.in agonising pain since August and had her operation cancelled

:26:54. > :27:07.last minute this week. Welcome, all of you, Nigel, I will

:27:08. > :27:12.begin with you, if I may, tell me what waiting 12 hours on a trolley

:27:13. > :27:18.with a clot on your loan is like. It was actually 13 hours! They relieve

:27:19. > :27:24.the pain very quickly, but it is not a very pleasant experience, being

:27:25. > :27:28.stuck in a trolley in the middle of a huge waiting room, very tedious,

:27:29. > :27:33.very boring and unpleasant experience. You have worked in

:27:34. > :27:38.health care yourself, I gather - when you suddenly find yourself in

:27:39. > :27:45.the middle of this, what is it like? Well, it is shocking. One reads

:27:46. > :27:48.about the stories, but to experience it is another thing altogether,

:27:49. > :27:54.astonishing to see these incredible delays in A, and what is more

:27:55. > :27:58.scandalous is that I was mostly surrounded by older people, and they

:27:59. > :28:02.were having to wait hours as well. I think it is the older people that

:28:03. > :28:07.I'm really concerned about, that they are being subject to this

:28:08. > :28:10.dreadful experience. Emily's grandad, in his case, the operation

:28:11. > :28:15.being cancelled, it turns out that there wasn't really a need to cancel

:28:16. > :28:20.it, but you wouldn't have known that unless your mother had stood her

:28:21. > :28:24.ground. Exactly, it was cancelled twice, and then cancelled again the

:28:25. > :28:28.following day, and my mum has been a manager elsewhere in the NHS, and

:28:29. > :28:32.she was able to kind of find out what the problem was and what was

:28:33. > :28:37.going on, and what she found was that it was a bed management issue,

:28:38. > :28:42.so while the front-line staff were brilliant, the senior managers in

:28:43. > :28:45.the background, essentially, weren't doing their job properly, and in our

:28:46. > :28:50.case we were able to resolve it, and my grandad was able to have is

:28:51. > :28:55.operation yesterday, and he has just got home, so he is doing really

:28:56. > :28:57.well! Your mum works for an NHS Trust, what does she say about

:28:58. > :29:05.morale amongst medical professionals? I think it is

:29:06. > :29:09.inevitable that it must be quite low, because they are facing these

:29:10. > :29:12.stresses, often on their own, because the managers above them who

:29:13. > :29:19.should be taking responsibility are not. Pip, hello, you have been on

:29:20. > :29:26.morphine for your pain for several months, and you still don't know

:29:27. > :29:32.what is causing it. No. Go on. I have an outside of the box illness,

:29:33. > :29:37.so yeah, quite difficult. No-one knows. Because I don't need

:29:38. > :29:41.emergency surgery, or it is not something serious that has been

:29:42. > :29:46.shown in my bloods, no-one really knows what to do with me. Clearly,

:29:47. > :29:49.that is a difficult issue, the medical professionals are doing

:29:50. > :29:54.their best to find out what is wrong - what is the issue for you with the

:29:55. > :30:01.NHS at the moment? I feel that they have treated my symptoms more than

:30:02. > :30:06.my cause, and just being active personally and stacked inside the

:30:07. > :30:14.house for seven months, in pain, like feeling sick, and also having

:30:15. > :30:20.to ring an ambulance because my pain hasn't been fully looked after. But

:30:21. > :30:24.would you be able to say that you think the staff are doing their best

:30:25. > :30:30.to help you out, to sort you out, to find out what the issue is? They

:30:31. > :30:34.have helped as best as they can, but when it comes to doctors talking to

:30:35. > :30:38.doctors, I've seen so many, some people have tried to be lovely, just

:30:39. > :30:42.didn't know what was wrong. Other people didn't even bother to talk to

:30:43. > :30:46.other doctors, and some people generally just didn't know what to

:30:47. > :30:55.do with me. And other people talked down to me like I was a two-year-old

:30:56. > :31:04.and thought I was lying about all this pain.

:31:05. > :31:10.There are thousands of staff with so many doing their absolute best

:31:11. > :31:15.comedy you have a solution? I do not hold hospitals responsible for this

:31:16. > :31:20.at all. The problem with social care is they couldn't free up beds

:31:21. > :31:24.because they can get people out of hospital because there was

:31:25. > :31:30.inadequate care in the community. The solution is to fund social care

:31:31. > :31:35.properly. The government notes what to do and they need to act now. --

:31:36. > :31:45.the government knows what to do and they need to act now.

:31:46. > :31:48.Let's get more from our health editor, Hugh Pym, and Norman Smith,

:31:49. > :31:56.This is a familiar story. The problem is, this is November. We get

:31:57. > :31:59.the figure is two months after the event. There were some figures

:32:00. > :32:03.leaked to the BBC a couple of days ago telling us how bad things were

:32:04. > :32:09.in the first week of January but official figures don't come out for

:32:10. > :32:14.a while. Back in November, even then there was an increasing number of

:32:15. > :32:19.people going to A 1.9 million people in November. An increase in

:32:20. > :32:23.the number of emergency admissions. There is this relentless increase in

:32:24. > :32:31.patient demand, all the key targets missed including the wait for cancer

:32:32. > :32:36.treatment, the delays generally for getting operations, and also the

:32:37. > :32:41.four hour wait at A 95% of patients should be seen or assessed

:32:42. > :32:46.within that for hours. That hasn't been met since July 20 15. It is one

:32:47. > :32:50.of the lowest on record. You've probably how that target compares

:32:51. > :32:56.with a year earlier. What about the others. Is it getting worse? These

:32:57. > :32:59.targets which NHS in England is supposed to meet have been missed

:33:00. > :33:04.consistently for several months now. It's part of an ongoing narrative,

:33:05. > :33:09.if you like. People have been warning about this for a while. The

:33:10. > :33:12.demand on the NHS has been rising more rapidly, year-on-year, than the

:33:13. > :33:16.money available. The government is right to say it's put in more money

:33:17. > :33:19.to the NHS, but if you've got a workload that's even better,

:33:20. > :33:25.something has to give. There have been warnings that what gives if

:33:26. > :33:30.there is no extra money is people have to wait longer for operations,

:33:31. > :33:34.you get more people stuck on trolleys in hospitals. And, as was

:33:35. > :33:38.identified in your discussion, social care is one of the big

:33:39. > :33:42.issues. If hospitals can't release people back into the community,

:33:43. > :33:44.elderly patients, that bed is occupied and not available to

:33:45. > :33:49.somebody coming in through the front door. There was a hospital leader

:33:50. > :33:55.Isil interviewed yesterday saying it is one in one out, every bed is

:33:56. > :33:59.occupied -- a hospital leader I interviewed yesterday. These figures

:34:00. > :34:03.we've just had show there was a really big increase year-on-year in

:34:04. > :34:08.the so-called delayed transfers of care in November, compared with the

:34:09. > :34:11.previous November. This is the big issue, how you can discharge people

:34:12. > :34:17.back into the community when in England social care has been cut in

:34:18. > :34:20.terms funding. Norman, how much pressure is the government and on

:34:21. > :34:24.the issue of the NHS in England right now? I don't think there's any

:34:25. > :34:28.doubt Mrs May is under real pressure. There's almost a sense at

:34:29. > :34:32.Westminster she's been blindsided and caught off-guard by the way this

:34:33. > :34:36.issue has blown up over recent weeks. Maybe she's just been focused

:34:37. > :34:41.on Brexit. There is another view that she doesn't quite get the NHS

:34:42. > :34:47.as an issue, not in the same way that David Cameron did. He famously

:34:48. > :34:53.said the three letters that mattered most to him were NHS. Now Theresa

:34:54. > :34:58.May is reeling from terrible stories about trolley waits, criticism and

:34:59. > :35:01.letters from medical professionals, the Royal colleges. We've got

:35:02. > :35:06.cross-party groups banding together to demand something is done about

:35:07. > :35:14.social care. We've had the Health Secretary floating possibly

:35:15. > :35:18.backtracking on the four hour target on A Now Mrs May seems to be

:35:19. > :35:23.involved in a public stand ups but with the man running the NHS, Simon

:35:24. > :35:27.Stephens. When, he has publicly clashed with Mrs May over how much

:35:28. > :35:31.cash he's getting. He's called for more action on social care,

:35:32. > :35:36.suggested using some of the pension perks like free bus passes to

:35:37. > :35:41.provide more money for social care. Yesterday he took a dig at Mrs May,

:35:42. > :35:46.saying, running the NHS isn't like running the criminal justice system.

:35:47. > :35:50.But its funding that is the real sharp end because the government

:35:51. > :35:55.have consistently said, we've given Mr Stevens more cash than he even

:35:56. > :35:59.asked for. Listen to Theresa May saying that.

:36:00. > :36:04.We asked the NHS themselves to come up with their five-year plan. We

:36:05. > :36:08.asked the NHS themselves to say what extra funding was needed to deliver

:36:09. > :36:14.on that. They came up with their five-year plan, led by Simon

:36:15. > :36:21.Stephens as chief executive. He said it was ?8 billion, we are giving ?10

:36:22. > :36:25.billion of extra funding to the NHS. Well, yesterday Mr Stevens in effect

:36:26. > :36:31.said, not true. You have not given me more money than I asked for. Have

:36:32. > :36:34.a listen. It's a matter of fact, it's not news, I've said it

:36:35. > :36:40.previously to the select committee back in October, that like every

:36:41. > :36:46.part of the public service, we got less than we asked for in that

:36:47. > :36:51.process. I think it would be stretching it to say the NHS has got

:36:52. > :36:55.more than it has asked for. This has all fuel suggestions of a rift

:36:56. > :37:07.emerging between a man running the NHS and Theresa May. We had the time

:37:08. > :37:11.day, Downing Street are saying they retain full confidence in Simon

:37:12. > :37:16.Stephens. If you look at other top officials who have clashed with Mrs

:37:17. > :37:19.May. Ivan Rogers, the man in Brussels who was supposed to be

:37:20. > :37:24.doing the negotiations to get us out of the EU, he walked the plank over

:37:25. > :37:28.Christmas after publicly accusing Mrs May and the government of

:37:29. > :37:33.muddled thinking of a Brexit. Then we have the governor of the Bank of

:37:34. > :37:37.England, Mark Carney, publicly very, very gloomy about what would happen

:37:38. > :37:44.after Brexit and the implications for the economy, enraging many of

:37:45. > :37:49.those in the Brexit campaign. Now, he is leaving his post two years

:37:50. > :37:53.earlier. Perhaps inevitably there are questions surrounding the future

:37:54. > :37:58.of Simon Stevens and whether he also might have to walk a plank. The one

:37:59. > :38:04.thing I think that might save him is, amidst all this pressure and

:38:05. > :38:09.outrage, just think, is the head of the NHS was to walk, how much more

:38:10. > :38:15.pressure Mrs May would be under. So perhaps the fact there is such a

:38:16. > :38:18.huge row at the moment means, maybe, Mr Stevens is untouchable. Thank

:38:19. > :38:26.you. This is an e-mail from a viewer, I

:38:27. > :38:29.disagree with increasing taxes to fund the NHS, however I would like

:38:30. > :38:33.to see at setting up a lottery to support it. I'm pretty sure British

:38:34. > :38:37.people would support this kind of lottery if they were sure all the

:38:38. > :38:41.cash would go to the organisation. Another view says, if I had to wait

:38:42. > :38:47.62 days the cancer I wouldn't bother, by then it would probably be

:38:48. > :38:52.too late. Another viewer, you can't take ?42 billion out of the NHS and

:38:53. > :38:57.expected to manage. Closing A puts pressure on everywhere else. If

:38:58. > :39:06.you have pertinent experience of the NHS then let me know. Still to come.

:39:07. > :39:09.The makers of Nutella fightback after claims that palm oil, one of

:39:10. > :39:12.its ingredients, could cause cancer. We'll speak to a cancer specialist

:39:13. > :39:15.and a nutritionist to ask them whether it should put us off

:39:16. > :39:17.buying the spread. Now a summary of the main

:39:18. > :39:19.stories this morning. Figures released in the past half

:39:20. > :39:22.hour show the continuing pressure Monthly performance data

:39:23. > :39:25.for November shows key targets These include the 62-day target

:39:26. > :39:28.for cancer treatment to start and the 18-week target

:39:29. > :39:35.for routine operations. The US Director of National

:39:36. > :39:37.Intelligence has rejected suggestions made by Donald Trump

:39:38. > :39:39.that official intelligence agencies leaked claims that Russia had

:39:40. > :39:45.compromising material on him. In a statement, James Clapper said

:39:46. > :39:47.he had called the President-elect to say the information had not come

:39:48. > :39:50.from the security services. More than 3,000 American troops,

:39:51. > :40:01.tanks, and armoured vehicles are arriving in Poland this morning

:40:02. > :40:04.- the United States' biggest military presence in the region

:40:05. > :40:12.since the Cold War. It's to support a Nato operation

:40:13. > :40:25.to deter any Russian aggression A woman has been jailed for 21 years

:40:26. > :40:30.for the murder of an elderly neighbour in Fife. She attacked Mary

:40:31. > :40:35.Logie with a rolling pin last January. Mrs Lodi suffered more than

:40:36. > :40:39.30 injuries to her head and neck. The High Court in Edinburgh heard

:40:40. > :40:40.that Sandra Weir had stolen thousands of pounds from her to fund

:40:41. > :40:46.a heroin addiction. A number of major retailers have

:40:47. > :40:48.published their sales figures for the Christmas

:40:49. > :40:50.period this morning. M reported a 2.3% rise in clothing

:40:51. > :40:52.sales in the 13 weeks Meanwhile, Tesco says its third

:40:53. > :40:58.quarter sales were up by 1.8%. And, John Lewis has reported a 2.7%

:40:59. > :41:01.rise in like-for-like sales over Southampton are a step

:41:02. > :41:10.closer to Wembley. They beat Liverpool 1-0

:41:11. > :41:13.in the first leg of the EFL Cup semi-final last night,

:41:14. > :41:15.Nathan Redmond with the goal. The return leg is at Anfield

:41:16. > :41:20.is in a fortnight's time. The England captain Alastair Cook

:41:21. > :41:22.will meet director of cricket Andrew Strauss on Friday

:41:23. > :41:24.to discuss his future, although no decision on his role

:41:25. > :41:27.as skipper is expected to be made. England lost their recent

:41:28. > :41:31.series against India 4-0. Andy Murray is in Melbourne,

:41:32. > :41:34.ahead of the Australian Open draw which takes place in the early hours

:41:35. > :41:46.of Friday morning. He'll be the number one seed at a

:41:47. > :41:47.grand slam for the first time in his career.

:41:48. > :41:50.Laura Robson and Tara Moore won't be in the draw -

:41:51. > :41:54.Dan Evans is through to a World Tour semi-final for the first

:41:55. > :41:57.The British number three beat top seed Dominic Thiem

:41:58. > :42:11.This comes ahead of the start of the Australian Open on Monday. Big hopes

:42:12. > :42:15.for a lot of British players in action. That is all the sport now,

:42:16. > :42:19.plenty more on the BBC News channel throughout the day.

:42:20. > :42:21.Coronation Street actor Simon Gregson has revealed that

:42:22. > :42:23.losing 11 babies with this wife influenced the storyline

:42:24. > :42:25.in which his on-screen partner suffered a miscarriage.

:42:26. > :42:27.Last night's episode saw harrowing scenes in which Michelle Connor,

:42:28. > :42:31.played by Kym Marsh, suffered a late miscarriage.

:42:32. > :42:33.Gregson, played by Steve McDonald, revealed the tragedy

:42:34. > :42:37.as Kym Marsh, said recreating the stillbirth

:42:38. > :42:39.was the best way to "honour" the baby she lost.

:42:40. > :43:18.When they ask me how many kids I've got, what do I say?

:43:19. > :43:22.Listen, you don't have to explain anything to anyone.

:43:23. > :43:30.But if I don't, it's like he never existed.

:43:31. > :43:33.Gregson is played by Steve McDonald, who yesterday hit out on Twitter

:43:34. > :43:37.at trolls who had tweeted his wife, Emma Gleave.

:43:38. > :43:39.He tweeted, "To the people who tweeted my wife.

:43:40. > :43:42."We've lost 11 babies, first being 21 weeks and 4 days.

:43:43. > :43:49."Maybe think or do your research before tweeting someone."

:43:50. > :43:51.In a moment, we'll be talking to Erica Stewart

:43:52. > :43:53.from the stillbirth and neonatal death charity Sands.

:43:54. > :43:56.But first we're going to show you a clip

:43:57. > :43:58.from an interview we did in October last year.

:43:59. > :44:00.22-year-old Jack Davis spoke to the programme about the ordeal

:44:01. > :44:03.of having to deal with the loss of two babies within 12 months.

:44:04. > :44:15.dealing with such a heartbreaking loss.

:44:16. > :44:18.In a tragedy like this, or even just a normal pregnancy,

:44:19. > :44:25.the main focus stereotypically is the one.

:44:26. > :44:27.the main focus stereotypically is the woman.

:44:28. > :44:29.Because she's delivered the baby, she's carried

:44:30. > :44:33.But I think people forget, in the background, there is a man

:44:34. > :44:37.There's a man there who's got to go through all of this as well.

:44:38. > :44:41.And it's not just the mother who's lost a child, it's the father who's

:44:42. > :44:45.I think there is a stigma surrounding men, that men have

:44:46. > :44:47.to just bottle things up and be a man about it.

:44:48. > :44:50.You know, "You'll get over it, you'll be fine, man up."

:44:51. > :44:54.You know, men hurt, men have feelings, men feel

:44:55. > :44:57.Except the physical side, maybe, of carrying a baby.

:44:58. > :45:00.But, yeah, I think it all got kind of pushed towards Leanne.

:45:01. > :45:03.I think I helped push it that way because I didn't want to talk,

:45:04. > :45:07.I didn't really want to face anybody and show it.

:45:08. > :45:10.I just wanted to get on with things and be that man,

:45:11. > :45:18.and be that stereotype and bottle it all up, until I realised

:45:19. > :45:23.Thank you for coming on the programme, you have worked closely

:45:24. > :45:29.with ITV on this particular storyline, what with the use that

:45:30. > :45:33.were raised? I think that, first of all, we were very pleased that

:45:34. > :45:38.Coronation Street came to us, because it showed that they realised

:45:39. > :45:40.the responsibility they had to portray this storyline very

:45:41. > :45:47.accurately. Looking at the scripts, it was just too ensured that the

:45:48. > :45:55.language that was used, you know, that it was portrayed sensitively. I

:45:56. > :46:05.mean, we just heard from Jack - it is... It is so distressing when your

:46:06. > :46:11.partner gives birth to a baby that is dead, or a baby that dies very

:46:12. > :46:15.shortly after birth, and the scenes in Coronation Street were also

:46:16. > :46:20.incredibly moving. How many people experience this? Well, it is 15

:46:21. > :46:26.babies dying every day in the UK, babies that died before, during or

:46:27. > :46:30.shortly after birth, so it is a lot, 15 families every day, and that has

:46:31. > :46:36.a wider impact on the families and friends as well. What are the

:46:37. > :46:40.reasons for still birth? Well, there is no definitive answer to that,

:46:41. > :46:47.really, which is why we launched our research fund last year, because in

:46:48. > :46:56.a lot of cases there is no known cause. Right. In terms of a couple

:46:57. > :47:00.coping with the bereavement, what advice do you give people? I think

:47:01. > :47:05.it is not necessarily advice, it is support. When a baby dies, you don't

:47:06. > :47:11.usually know anybody else that this has happened to, so that is where

:47:12. > :47:15.Sands comes in, because parents feel so isolated, so it is really

:47:16. > :47:20.acknowledging the huge impact that this has on parents and families,

:47:21. > :47:24.and of course it is something you don't get over - it is something

:47:25. > :47:27.parents and families learn to live with. And are you there to give

:47:28. > :47:33.advice and support to parents when they know that their child is going

:47:34. > :47:37.to be born dead? Yes. What advice do you give people? It is not

:47:38. > :47:43.necessarily advice, it is more support, so we have a booklet, when

:47:44. > :47:51.a baby dies before Labour begins, and this gets parents to think about

:47:52. > :47:56.the choices before their baby is born, creating memories, seeing and

:47:57. > :47:59.holding their baby, as we saw last night, taking photographs, hand and

:48:00. > :48:03.footprints. Because the only memories they are going to have is

:48:04. > :48:07.the memories that are created in hospital, so it is unique to any

:48:08. > :48:12.other type of bereavement. I think it is worth saying, because for most

:48:13. > :48:18.people it is unimaginable, but as the woman, giving birth to a dead

:48:19. > :48:22.baby, it is a normal labour that you have to go through. I don't think

:48:23. > :48:27.people realise, there is a lack of awareness in society that women do

:48:28. > :48:32.go through full labour and have to give birth. People think it is an

:48:33. > :48:36.early miscarriage, where maybe they think you have lost the baby down

:48:37. > :48:40.the toilet or something, but actually, as Michelle showed last

:48:41. > :48:44.night, women give birth, they go through full labour and have a

:48:45. > :48:50.choice to see and hold their baby and create memories. And what about

:48:51. > :48:57.decisions about how the child is buried? Again, parents can arrange

:48:58. > :49:01.their own funeral, or sometimes the hospital can take care of the

:49:02. > :49:05.funeral as well. So again it is a normal funeral, the normal

:49:06. > :49:09.arrangements that he would make for an adult. Simon Gregson revealed, as

:49:10. > :49:15.we said in the introduction, alert he and his wife have lost 11 babies,

:49:16. > :49:21.some miscarriages, some still birth - an extraordinarily large amount.

:49:22. > :49:25.It is huge, how they have coped I do not know, but we are there plans to

:49:26. > :49:29.support anybody affected by the death of a baby, and we have a

:49:30. > :49:30.helpline open throughout the storyline. Thank you for talking to

:49:31. > :49:37.us, Erica, from Sands. and could it increase the risk

:49:38. > :49:41.of you getting cancer? Well, a report by the European

:49:42. > :49:43.Food Standards Agency is warning that palm oil,

:49:44. > :49:46.a key ingredient in the popular brand, generates chemicals that

:49:47. > :49:49.are thought to cause cancer. has launched a campaign

:49:50. > :49:55.to re-assure the public about the safety of the much-loved

:49:56. > :50:01.hazelnut and chocolate spread. that the palm oil used

:50:02. > :50:05.in Nutella is safe, and "making Nutella without palm oil

:50:06. > :50:08.would be a step backward." But if experts think there might be

:50:09. > :50:11.a problem with palm oil, she's a nutritionist

:50:12. > :50:19.for the Sun newspaper And in Birmingham

:50:20. > :50:22.is Professor Nick James, a clinical consultant specialising

:50:23. > :50:34.in urological cancer. Welcome, both of you. First of all,

:50:35. > :50:40.if I could talk to you, Professor, what do you think of the dangers or

:50:41. > :50:50.otherwise of eating food or spread that may contain palm oil? It is

:50:51. > :50:53.quite a media stable, you know, that something causes cancer, and it may

:50:54. > :50:56.well be true, but if you expose cancer cells to enough of something

:50:57. > :51:01.for long enough, you can show effects that are concerning. I think

:51:02. > :51:05.the essential point is around dosage. We know, for example, with

:51:06. > :51:11.cigarette smoking, you have to smoke 20 day for 50 years in order to have

:51:12. > :51:16.the substantial increase of cancer. One or two a day would not produce

:51:17. > :51:20.much risk. The same applies to things like bacon, it is

:51:21. > :51:24.carcinogenic, but most people are not eating 20 rashers a day. Just go

:51:25. > :51:31.back to cigarettes, I haven't heard that before, that you say, sorry, go

:51:32. > :51:38.on. Your risk is related to the number of cigarettes you smoke. So

:51:39. > :51:43.you do not see cigarettes causing cancer within a year also of

:51:44. > :51:47.starting smoking, so the key point is it is not just around whether

:51:48. > :51:51.something is carcinogenic, it is how much you are exposed to it. So with

:51:52. > :51:57.something like Nutella, where you have a dollop on bread, even if you

:51:58. > :52:02.are really addicted, more than once a day, you're still not eating very

:52:03. > :52:07.much of it. So even if it is carcinogenic, it is not a high risk.

:52:08. > :52:13.But are you saying it is carcinogenic? I have no idea. I am

:52:14. > :52:17.not in a position to say that. The thing that doesn't get taken into

:52:18. > :52:24.account in these stories is the issue around dosage, how much you

:52:25. > :52:29.are exposed to in a normal diet, and the answer was almost certainly not

:52:30. > :52:35.very much. Bond taken, hazelnut and chocolate spread for breakfast, some

:52:36. > :52:40.kids and adults, not good, palm oil or not? That is the point, as a

:52:41. > :52:44.nutritionist, I come at it from the overall diets that we are eating, so

:52:45. > :52:48.something like Nutella or any of the other chocolate spread the market,

:52:49. > :52:53.the first ingredient is sugar. So that is in the spotlight at the

:52:54. > :52:58.moment, so if you are having a tablespoon of Nutella, that is two

:52:59. > :53:02.teaspoons of sugar, so that is one reason, as a nutritionist, we would

:53:03. > :53:07.say, try not to have it too often, in spite of any palm oil issues as

:53:08. > :53:12.well. The reason we have these other products here is because they also

:53:13. > :53:15.have palm oil. The problem with the palm oil that the European Food

:53:16. > :53:20.Standards Agency has highlighted is when it is heated to beyond 200

:53:21. > :53:23.degrees, that is the crucial thing, and they say that is when the

:53:24. > :53:28.carcinogenic is formed, and obviously the professor has a good

:53:29. > :53:38.point. And we wouldn't know, whether it has been heated. The point is,

:53:39. > :53:40.these foods that, as dieticians nutritionists, go steady on them

:53:41. > :53:43.anyway. It is kind of a story, obviously, we need to know about

:53:44. > :53:47.this as members of the public, but these are foods that do not appear

:53:48. > :53:51.in the eat well guide. We have a plate which the Department of Health

:53:52. > :53:54.has created to guide us towards healthy eating, and these foods are

:53:55. > :53:59.outside of the health. We have fruit and veg, protein, starchy

:54:00. > :54:04.carbohydrates, and these things are outside the plate, to be had in

:54:05. > :54:08.strict moderation. So it is very much about quantity that you eat

:54:09. > :54:14.which is very important. We hear you talk about quantity, both of you. Do

:54:15. > :54:19.you think parents should, for whatever reason, stop buying

:54:20. > :54:23.chocolate spread for their children? That is a difficult one, you have

:54:24. > :54:26.got to have the ability of people to make a choice over this, so you

:54:27. > :54:30.might prefer to give your children chocolate spread as opposed to

:54:31. > :54:34.biscuits. On the breakfast table, you would not give your kid a bar of

:54:35. > :54:41.chocolate, would you? So giving them, you know, a thing of chocolate

:54:42. > :54:44.spread... It is a difficult one, because I would appeared to be

:54:45. > :54:48.dictating to people where they spend their sugar and fat allowance, and I

:54:49. > :54:52.think it has to be personal choice. Would I have chocolate spread on the

:54:53. > :54:56.table every morning? Probably not, because once my children start

:54:57. > :55:00.eating it, they can't stop, then you have a battle royal on your hands.

:55:01. > :55:04.So it has to be down to the individual. Professor, it is really

:55:05. > :55:10.interesting, showing our audience the other products which contain

:55:11. > :55:23.palm oil - margarine, a pot noodle, digestives, Bakewell slices, dairy

:55:24. > :55:30.milk. The point is very well made, you do not want to eat too much of

:55:31. > :55:34.any of those. So it is all about having a balanced diet, a mix of

:55:35. > :55:39.nutrients, and I don't think it is wrong to have the odd treat, but if

:55:40. > :55:42.it is a big component of your diet, it is going to be doing you much

:55:43. > :55:47.more harm in other ways, the quantity of sugar and calories, much

:55:48. > :55:53.more quickly than a long-term risk which may or may not be there of

:55:54. > :55:58.carcinogenesis. We do not know what process has gone into making this

:55:59. > :56:02.stuff. Amanda, in terms of the calories and sugar content generally

:56:03. > :56:08.in those products, what would you say about them? Keep them for treat

:56:09. > :56:13.times, but irregularly part of your diet, sorry to be boring, same old

:56:14. > :56:17.mantra! Thank you very much, Amanda, thanks for coming on the programme,

:56:18. > :56:25.we really appreciate your time, Professor. OK. Thank you, bye-bye.

:56:26. > :56:29.In case you hadn't heard, there is snow on the way, thundersnow, and

:56:30. > :56:33.meteorologists are predicting this rare occurrence in some parts of

:56:34. > :56:41.Wales today. Have you ever seen it? What is it? Nick Miller explains.

:56:42. > :56:47.Snow is one thing. Thundersnow is another. Unusual but some of us have

:56:48. > :56:53.observed it recently, and there may be more to come, with the weather

:56:54. > :56:57.said up as it is, plenty of cold air across the UK, and we are seeing

:56:58. > :57:01.snow showers coming our way. If there is enough energy, you get a

:57:02. > :57:05.thunderstorm, but it is winter, and instead of rain, you get

:57:06. > :57:08.thundersnow. There is not a huge amount of difference between the

:57:09. > :57:13.mechanics of a winter thunderstorm compared with a summer thunderstorm,

:57:14. > :57:17.lots of air rising quickly to produce big clouds, and within that

:57:18. > :57:21.cloud ice crystals interact with each other, producing a build-up of

:57:22. > :57:26.static electricity, and the bigger the build-up, the more likely you

:57:27. > :57:30.will get a discharge in the form of a lightning strike. But there are

:57:31. > :57:34.some differences in winter - first of all, the lightning at night may

:57:35. > :57:38.well appear brighter because it is reflected by snowflakes. But the

:57:39. > :57:42.snowflakes may muffle the sound of the thunder. You are not likely to

:57:43. > :57:46.hear thunder as far away from a winter thunderstorm as you are from

:57:47. > :57:51.a summer thunderstorm. So unusual, not unheard of, look out, this note,

:57:52. > :57:57.you may be lucky to encounter thundersnow.

:57:58. > :58:03.Look out, stay tuned to the BBC Weather forecasts through the day.

:58:04. > :58:07.Wendy does not believe Donald Trump is involved in the sexual

:58:08. > :58:11.allegations and says, I have no clue why an MI6 business getting

:58:12. > :58:14.involved. Cameron says, if the details were not verifiable,

:58:15. > :58:22.BuzzFeed does not have a right to publish this kind of material. And

:58:23. > :58:28.let me find this one, I can't find my comments on motel, just as well,

:58:29. > :58:29.because we have reached the end of the programme! Thank you very much

:58:30. > :58:33.for getting in touch, BBC News If we don't do something, it's going

:58:34. > :58:38.to burst, and it'll kill him. It'd be good to

:58:39. > :58:40.get it over and done with